Academic philosophy

This is a short summary of my philosophical interests and my academic career. See here for a more detailed, classical list, including some publications.

Background #

My work is a reflection on the late modern critique of the subject: What does it mean to conceive of rationality, understanding, and the self consistently in terms of praxis? Standing on the shoulders of Wittgenstein, Foucault and Dewey, I try to understand how reason relates to experience, and how practical interaction constitutes and transforms subjectivity.

Artificial Intelligence #

My current research focuses on how to understand the achievements of artificial intelligence (AI). As an advocate of the embodied and social nature of congnition, I disagree that information processing is a sufficient model to address this issue. AI is an unsettling phenomenon that productively challenges us to recalibrate our understanding of thinking and rationality.

I suggest viewing AI as a semiotic tool: It receives signs and produces signs, based on statistical inference. Its ability to ’think' must therefore be seen as an instance of rule-following in the Wittgensteinian sense. Its logical nature is a function of the social practice in which it is embedded, and not the emergence of a new artificial subjectivity.

Professional Experience #

In the field of philosophy, I have written three books and co-edited six collections on various topics, mostly in an interdisciplinary framework. My research has been published in national and international academic journals. I have twenty years of experience in university teaching at all levels, in German and English, on a wide range of topics and courses. I have worked as a doctoral student, postdoctoral researcher and visiting professor. I have supervised numerous BA and MA theses.

I have a Dr. phil and a (rather useless) German Habilitation (PD).