Marsilius kontrovers The Measured Human: Between Diagnosis, Prevention and Self-Optimization

The possibilities for measuring the human body are constantly expanding – and with them the hope of understanding, predicting and influencing health ever more precisely. The history of medicine is also a history of its measurement techniques: from the introduction of temperature measurement in the late 19th century and the routine analysis of blood values in the mid-20th century to today’s analysis of genetic data.

Measuring the body is no longer confined to the clinical setting. It is increasingly becoming part of everyday life, particularly through the use of smartwatches, and is therefore also increasingly being used for self-optimization. This development inevitably raises the question of where the boundaries lie between medical diagnosis, meaningful prevention and the desire for self-optimization. How reliable and useful is the increasing measurement of the human body? Can we learn from history how the growing practice of measuring the body has been received by society? How is the increasing quantification of the body changing our understanding of health – and what does it mean for our conception of humanity when more and more aspects of our bodies are translated into data and measurable values?

The panel brings together experts from medicine, biophysics, history, theology and ethics to discuss, together with the audience, the opportunities and challenges arising from the increasing measurement of the human body – and how it is transforming medicine, society and our understanding of what it means to be human.

The audience in the lecture hall and those watching via livestream are invited to participate in the discussion: Thursday, 24 September 2026, at 7:00 p.m., in the lecture hall of the Marsilius Kolleg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 130.1, 69120 Heidelberg. 

The event at the Marsilius Kolleg will be simultaneously interpreted into English.

The discussion is part of the Marsilius Academy “Feel the Heat: Science and Histories of Fever”, taking place from 20–25 September 2026.