Projects
Modern time-consciousness: philosophy and politics of history - Leo Strauss on history and truth in the relation of theory and praxis. KU Leuven
The first part of the project will clarify a set of problems centering on the ...
Philosophy as therapy? An inquiry into the application of a Wittgensteinian idea in the moral realm. KU Leuven
My research is, firstly, aimed at giving a detailed account of ...
The Origins of Early Anglophone Philosophy of Science: Debating Scientific Explanation Ghent University
After the introduction of Carl Hempel’s Covering Law model in 1948, scientific explanation became
a central topic of philosophical attention in early anglophone philosophy of science in the 1950s
and 1960s. During this period, philosophy of science became an academic subdiscipline, with its
own societies, journals and graduate programs. Though many contemporary philosophers of
science have distanced themselves from the ...
Causality in cognitive science and philosophy of mind. University of Antwerp
Human life? From philosophy of life to philosophical anthropology: a transnational and transdisciplinary inquiry. Ghent University
This project proposes a historical and systematic study of German and French intellectual projects between 1870 and 1940 labelled 'Philosophy of Life,' 'Biological Philosophy,' and 'Philosophical Anthropology.' The core hypothesis is that they share an alternative conception of philosophy, called here heterodox naturalism, which (1) resists reductive naturalisms as well as idealist and analytical approaches, and (2) seeks to articulate an ...
Albert Lautman: from mathematical philosophy to metaphysics? Ghent University
The work of the philosopher-mathematician, Albert Lautman (1908-1944), situated within the French historical epistemological landscape of the 20th-century, is characterized by a fascinating an unique interplay between metaphysics, mathematics and history. According to Lautman, philosophy of mathematics is a synthetic study of mathematical problems seen from a Platonic meta-mathematical perspective. So it is up to the philosopher of ...
Transcendental Materialism and its Disciplinary Concern' - On the Systematization, History and Practice of a Philosophy after the Žižekian Synthesis Ghent University
This project aims to systematize the contemporary, increasingly influential movement named ‘Transcendental Materialism’ (‘TM’) by philosopher Adrian Johnston. Associated with, among others, Slavoj Žižek and Alain Badiou, this philosophy eclectically draws from German idealist, psychoanalytical, and Marxist traditions. Recent scholarship shows that TM, despite earlier attempts at systematization, is currently still unable to reflect on its key ...
Believing in Logic and Philosophy. KU Leuven
Epistemic logic was created in the 1960's, mainly by philosophers. Recent work, however, focuses on connections with areas such as game theory and artificial intelligence (multi-agent systems). Many of these developments are also relevant from a philosophical perspective. Some concrete examples are (1) various social notions of knowledge and belief, (2) the dynamics of knowledge and belief, and (3) connections with justification and ...
Mozi and Yang Zhu from Heretics to Philosophers: Caught in a New Web? The Genealogy of "Chinese Philosophy" in Three Major Steps. KU Leuven
Before the introduction of philosophy in China, the two figures Mozi and Yang Zhu were treated as the stereotypical heretics in the Chinese tradition: Mozi (5th c. BCE) was the extreme altruist without respect for family priorities; Yang Zhu (4th c. BCE) was the extreme egoist without any sense of political responsibility. Since their rehabilitation as “Chinese philosophers” in the 20th century, they have been portrayed with newly coined ...