Franz Knappik

Position

Professor

Research

I have research interests both in the history of philosophy and in contemporary philosophy. 

My historical research focuses on Classical German Philosophy. I have published on topics that include Kant’s moral psychology; Hegel’s metaphysics, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, political philosophy, and his views on race and colonialism; and Fichte’s epistemology. 

My systematic interests are in the philosophy of mind and of psychology (including self-knowledge, phenomenology of action, and pathologies of self-awareness), in social philosophy (e.g. social functions, racism, post-truth), and in post-/decolonial approaches. 

At the Department of Philosophy, I coordinate the "Critical Theories Colloquium", a platform for researchers and advanced students interested in postcolonial thought, critical philosophy of race, (trans)feminism and political epistemology. You're most welcome to contact me if you'd like to take part in the meetings of the group.

Together with Daniel James (Düsseldorf/Berlin), I organize the workshop series "Hegel (anti)kolonial"(hegelantikolonial.wordpress.com). 

Outreach

"Hegel, den besværlige filosofen", interview in Klassekampen, 5.3.22

"Eine Last der Vernunft", with Daniel James, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 6.10.21

statements (with Daniel James) in "Rassismus und Kolonialismus in der Diskussion", Information Philosophie 4(2021), 24-43

Das Untote in Hegel: Warum wir über seinen Rassismus reden müssen, with Daniel James, praefaktisch 27.5.21; reply  by Folko Zander; our replies, part 1; part 2.  

Publications

Books

Hegel and Colonialism (with Daniel James, MS submitted to Cambridge Elements)

Im Reich der Freiheit. Hegels Theorie autonomer Vernunft (In the realm of freedom. Hegel's theory of autonomous reason), Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2013

 

Editorship

Varieties of Agency: Exploring New Avenues (Research Topic with "Frontiers in Psychology Cognition", edited with Nivedita Gangopadhyay and Vivian Puusepp, in preparation)

Racism and Colonialism in Hegel's Philosophy (Special Issue of "Hegel Bulletin", edited with Daniel James, in press)

The Phenomenology of Joint Action: Structure, Mechanisms, and Functions (Special Issue of "Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences", edited with Nivedita Gangopadhyay, in press)

 

Articles (selection)

Forthcoming

"G.W.F. Hegel, Frantz Fanon, and Angela Davis on Recognition, Slavery, and Liberation", with Daniel James, in: Matt Congdon/Thomas Khurana, eds. The Philosophy of Recognition: Expanded Perspectives on a Fundamental Concept, Routledge, forthcoming

"Hegel and Social Metaphysics: Social Constructionism, ‘Objective Concepts’, and the Case of Occupational Kinds", with Daniel James, in: Jonas Held/James Conant, eds. The Palgrave Handbook on German Idealism and Analytic Philosophy, forthcoming 

2023

"Exploring the Metaphysics of Hegel’s Racism: The Teleology of the ‘Concept’ and the Taxonomy of Races", with Daniel James, Hegel Bulletin 44(1), 99-126 (2023)

"Introduction to the Special Issue 'The Phenomenology of Joint Action'", with Nivedita Gangopadhyay, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, online first, 2023

2022

"No Need for Mineness: Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder and Mental State Types", Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, online first (2022)

"'Å virkelig unnslippe Hegel': Tanker om Hegels rasisme og Fanons antirasisme" ("'To really escape Hegel': Thoughts on Hegel's racism and Fanon's anti-racism"), Agora 40(1), 158-177 (2022)

"Confusions about 'Inner' and 'Outer' Voices: Conceptual Problems in the Assessment of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations" (with Josef Bless and Frank Larøi), Review of Philosophy and Psychology 13, 215-236 (2022)

2020

"Brandom on Postmodern Ethical Life: Moral and Political Problems", in Gilles Bouche, ed. Reading Brandom: On a Spirit of Trust, London: Routledge, 2020

Review of Robert Pippin, "Hegel's Realm of Shadows", SGIR Review 3(1-2), 144-149 (2020)

2019

"Gêneros objetivos e teleologia em Hegel: da natureza à sociedade" ("Hegel on Objective Kinds and Teleology: From Nature to Society"), Revista Eletrônica Estudos Hegelianos 16(27), 1-40 (2019) (English version here)

"An Erring Conscience is an Absurdity: The Later Kant on Certainty, Moral Judgment and the Infallibility of Conscience" (with Erasmus Mayr), Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 101:1, 92-134 (2019)

"What is Wrong with Blind Necessity? Schelling's Critique of Spinoza's Necessitarianism in the Freedom Essay", Journal of the History of Philosophy 57:1, 129-157 (2019)

"Sellars on Self-Knowledge", in Anke Breunig & Stefan Brandt (eds.), Sellars and Twentieth-Century Philosophy, London: Routledge, 2019, 221-239

2018

"Kant, Schopenhauer und Fichte über unser Wissen von unseren körperlichen Handlungen" ("Kant, Schopenhauer and Fichte on our knowledge of our bodily actions"), in: Fichte-Studien 45 (2018)

"Hegel and Arguments for Natural Kind Essentialism", Hegel Bulletin 42(3), 368-394 (2018)

"Bayes and the First Person. Inner Speech, Consciousness of Thoughts and Probabilistic Inference", Synthese 195, 2113–2140 (2018) 

"'Gegenwärtige prosaische Zustände': Hegels melancholische Ästhetik und Schillers politische Eschatologie", in Thomas Oehl & Artur Kok (eds.), Objektiver und absoluter Geist nach Hegel. Kunst, Religion und Philosophie innerhalb und außerhalb von Gesellschaft und Geschichte. Leiden: Brill, 2018, 504-526

2016

"And Yet He Is a Monist. Comments on James Kreines, 'Reason in the World'", Hegel Bulletin, online first, 2016, 1-17

"Hegel's Essentialism. Natural Kinds and the Metaphysics of Explanation in Hegel's Theory of 'the Concept'", European Journal of Philosophy 24 (2016), 760-787

"Hegel on Consciousness, Self-consciousness and Idealism", International Yearbook of German Idealism 11 (2013) (appeared in 2016) 

2015

"Self-knowledge about Attitudes: Rationalism meets Interpretation", Philosophical Explorations 18/2 (2015), 183-198

"Hegel's Modal Argument Against Spinozism. An Interpretation of the Chapter 'Actuality' in Hegel's Science of Logic", Hegel Bulletin 36(1) (2015), 53-79

2014

"Metaphysik der Kontingenz. Kierkegaards anti-nezessitarische und anti-hegelianische Modaltheorie im 'Zwischenspiel' der Philosophischen Brocken" ("Metaphysics of contingency. Kierkegaard's anti-necessitarian and anti-Hegelian theory of modality in the 'Interlude' of Philosophical Fragments"), in: Axel Hutter / Anders Moe Rasmussen (eds.), Kierkegaard im Kontext des Deutschen Idealismus, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter 2014, 151-202