I hold an MA in philosophy and sinology from Tübingen University (1996) and a Dr. phil. degree from the University of Heidelberg in philosophy (1999, with a dissertation on Cassirer and Goodman). I completed my habilation at Bonn University in 2014 (with a book on the paradoxes of the infinite in Kant, Hegel, and Cantorian set theory). Before joining Aarhus University as an Associate Professor in philosophy in 2016, I have been employed at the philosophy departments at Heidelberg (2000-03), Bonn (2003-15) and RWTH Aachen (2015-16).
My research interests range over Kant and post-Kantian philosophy (Hegel, neo-Kantianism, Cassirer, Strawson), with a focus on metaphysics and epistemology, and over Critical Theory (Adorno), aesthetics, philosophy and music, and classical Chinese philosophy.
I have authored two monographs, one on "Cassirer and the Forms of Spirit" (in German, Suhrkamp 2010), and another on "Negative Dialectics of the Infinite: Kant, Hegel, Cantor" (in German, Suhrkamp 2015). I have co-edited a volume on classical and contemporary "Arguments for the Existence of God" (in German, together with Joachim Bromand, Suhrkamp 2011); a sequel on "Arguments against the Existence of God" is forthcoming (in German, together with Joachim Bromand, Suhrkamp). I have co-edited, together with Michael N. Forster and Tze-wan Kwan, three special issues of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy in five volumes (in 2017, 2022, and 2023). I am also an associate editor of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy (since 2022).
Some recent articles in English:
“Kant on Why We Cannot Even Judge About Things in Themselves”, in Limits of Intelligibility: Issues from Kant and Wittgenstein, ed. Jens Pier, London: Routledge, 2023, 57–86; doi.org/10.4324/9781003142133.
“Cassirer’s Concept of a Symbolic Form Reconsidered”, in European Journal of Philosophy 31 (2023), 1115–1124; doi.org/10.1111/ejop.12912.
“Xunzi and Zhuangzi on Music: Two Ways of Modeling the Ethical Significance of Art”, in Journal of Chinese Philosophy 50:1 (2023), 64–80; doi.org/10.1163/15406253-12340090.
“Cassirer’s Philosophy of Mind: From Consciousness to Objective Spirit”, in: Simon Truwant (ed.), Interpreting Cassirer, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, 170–189; doi.org/10.1017/9781108677806.012.
“Transcendental Method as Analysis: Marburg Neo-Kantianism between Transcendental Philosophy and Descriptive Metaphysics”, in: British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 27 (2019), S. 293–314, doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2018.1553770.
“The Challenge of Paradox: Problems with Infinity and Contradiction in Western and Chinese Philosophy”, in: Journal of Chinese Philosophy 44:3-4 (2017), 193–211, https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6253.12290.
“Cassirer and Rousseau: The Problem of a Universal Principle of Justice”, in: Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, Vol. 38, No. 2, 2017, 267-87.
“The Varieties of Perception: Nonconceptual Content in Kant, Cassirer, and McDowell”, in: J. Tyler Friedman, Sebastian Luft (eds.), Ernst Cassirer – A Novel Assessment, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015, 313–38.
