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Kripke's standard meter : a religious dream?In Martin Gustafsson, Oskari Kuusela & Jakub Mácha (eds.), Engaging Kripke with Wittgenstein: The Standard Meter, Contingent Apriori, and Beyond, Routledge. 2023.
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14Disinterestedness and Its Role in Kant’s AestheticsIn Larissa Berger (ed.), Disinterested Pleasure and Beauty: Perspectives from Kantian and Contemporary Aesthetics, De Gruyter. pp. 87-104. 2023.
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6Chinese Language, Chinese Mind?In Christian Kanzian (ed.), Cultures. Conflict - Analysis - Dialogue: Proceedings of the 29th International Ludwig Wittgenstein-Symposium in Kirchberg, Austria, Walter De Gruyter. pp. 295-314. 2007.
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32The Idea of a Good Life: Lessons from Confucius, Aristotle, Zhuangzi, and the StoicsJournal of Chinese Philosophy 50 (1): 3-16. 2023.In 1930, the British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2030 people would work only fifteen hours per week and enjoy more free time and leisure, that we would return to “principles of religion and traditional virtue,” declaring “love of money morbid, semi-criminal, and semi-pathological,” and that “we shall once more value ends above means.” But today, we do not see that this prophesy has proven true. Something must have gone wrong. We do not sufficiently know the distinction betwee…Read more
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10Review of: Alfred R. Mele, Manipulated Agents: A Window to Moral Responsibility, Oxford University Press, 2019. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2019.10.05 (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 1 0. 2019.
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57Can thoughts be read from the brain? Neuroscience Contra WittgensteinSynthese 200 (3): 1-19. 2022.Wittgenstein wrote: “No supposition seems to me more natural than that there is no process in the brain correlated with associating or with thinking; so that it would be impossible to read off thought-processes from brain processes.” In general, he rejects what he calls “psycho-physical parallelism.” In Sect. 1, I explain Wittgenstein’s position on this topic and how his followers defend it. In Sect. 2, I argue against Wittgenstein, contending that there is “thought” in a wider sense and that it…Read more
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19Free Will and Zhuangzi: An IntroductionIn John Perry, Michael Bratman & John Martin Fischer (eds.), Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Oxford University Press. pp. 460-473. 2021.In this piece, Wenzel explores how the ancient Chinese philosopher, Zhuangzi, approaches issues of freedom and moral responsibility. Zhuangzi’s writings are very different in form from traditional Western philosophy, but there is significant overlap in the treatment of freedom and moral responsibility. Distinctive of Zhuangzi’s approach is the method of “fasting of the mind,” where one is less focused on extensive practical deliberations and is more attuned to the environment and task at hand. I…Read more
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26How Representational Is the Mind? Introduction and OverviewPhilosophy East and West 71 (1): 13-37. 2021.ARRAY
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40Aesthetic Education in Confucius, Xunzi, and KantYearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy 2018 (3): 59-75. 2018.This essay introduces ideas from Confucius, Xunzi, the Six Dynasties, and Kant about beauty, music, morality, and what we might today call “aesthetic education.” It asks how beauty and morality are related and how they ideally should be related to each other. We know that beauty and morality can drift apart, and we may wonder how aesthetic education might work best. Should the arts be a means for developing morality? Or should it be the other way around? These questions are still relevant today.…Read more
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15Egocentricity and Mysticism: An Anthropological Study by Ernst Tugendhat (review)Philosophy East and West 68 (4): 1-7. 2019.This is a short, but complex and ambitious book. It is argumentative in style and in many places written in the first person. It appeared first in German in 2003, and in 2016 in English translation, to which the two translators added a detailed and informative introduction. The overall aim of the book is to describe and explain how human beings, as users of propositional language and with the ability to refer to themselves, develop into egocentric beings, who find themselves confronted with the …Read more
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44Reasoning with ZhuangziJournal of Chinese Philosophy 44 (1-2): 71-89. 2017.In this essay I closely look at dialogues from the Daoist text Zhuangzi and examine their modes of reasoning. The observations, comments, and dialogues are often witty, surprising, and puzzling. Sometimes they are mystic and difficult to understand. But how “reasonable” are the answers given in these dialogues? I will focus on a dialogue from chapter 17, called “Autumn Floods.” I will closely follow and analyze the arguments and their twists. In particular, I will question the use of the word “D…Read more
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Kant über Schönheit und Zweckmäßigkeit in der MathematikContributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society 26 281-284. 2018.Kann Mathematik schön sein? Gibt es Leben in der Mathematik? In der Kritik der Urteilskraft (1790) untersucht Kant Prinzipien der Zweckmäßigkeit, eine subjektive Zweckmäßigkeit für die Ästhetik und eine objektive Zweckmäßigkeit für die Teleologie. Die Mathematik aber fällt bezüglich beider durch. Mathematische Gegenstände und Eigenschaften können nach Kant nicht schön sein und bei Erklärungen müssen wir keine Vorstellung von einem Zweck voraussetzen, denn wir können die Gegenstän…Read more
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82Phenomenology of Embodied Intersubjectivity: From Zhuangzi to Hermann SchmitzYearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy 2017 (2): 291-303. 2017.Hermann Schmitz has developed a “New Phenomenology.” It emphasizes fundamental conceptions that undercut traditional subject-object distinctions. In the Chinese classic The Zhuangzi we find stories that describe involvements and dialogue that can be seen as doing something similar. I will bring out some of these parallels. In particular I will focus on freedom and mutual understanding.
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18Ruth Garrett Millikan: On Clear and Confused Ideas. An Essay about Substance Concepts (review)European Journal of Philosophy 12 (1): 157-161. 2004.Books Reviewed: Ruth Garrett Millikan.
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2The Art of Doing MathematicsIn Berys Nigel Gaut & Matthew Kieran (eds.), Creativity and Philosophy, Routledge. pp. 313-330. 2018.Mathematicians often say that their theorems, proofs, and theories can be beautiful. They say mathematics can be like art. They know how to move creatively and freely in their domains. But ordinary people usually cannot do this and do not share this view. They often have unpleasant memories from school and do not have this experience of freedom and creativity in doing mathematics. I myself have been a mathematician, and I wish to highlight some of the creative aspects in doing mathematics. I alw…Read more
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On the Structure of Non-Reduced Parabolic Subgroup-SchemesProceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics 56 (1): 291-297. 1994.
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Rationality of G/P for a Non-Reduced Parabolic Subgroup Scheme PProceedings of the American Mathematical Society 117 (4): 899-904. 1993.
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Classification of All Parabolic Subgroup Schemes of a Reductive Linear Algebraic Group over an Algebraically Closed FieldTransactions of the American Mathematical Society 337 (1): 211-218. 1993.
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Classification of All Parabolic Subgroup-Schemes of a Semi-Simple Linear Algebraic Group over an Algebraically Closed FieldDissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. 1990.
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1Perception in Kant, McDowell, and BurgeContributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society 25 284-287. 2017.Kant sometimes compares human beings with animals and angels and grants human beings a middle position. But contrary to what one might expect, his transcendental philosophy does not apply well to animals or angels. The question of whether we share perception with animals has no good answer in his system that has to be taken as a single piece and does not allow for introducing steps of empirical, real developments. Differently from Kant, McDowell does compare human beings with animals, but he is …Read more
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47An Introduction to Kant's Aesthetics: Core Concepts and ProblemsWiley-Blackwell. 2005.In _An Introduction to Kant’s Aesthetics_, Christian Wenzel discusses and demystifies Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment, guiding the reader each step of the way and placing key points of discussion in the context of Kant’s other work. Explains difficult concepts in plain language, using numerous examples and a helpful glossary. Proceeds in the same order as Kant’s text for ease of reference and comprehension. Includes an illuminating foreword by Henry E. Allison. Offers twenty-six further…Read more
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264Kant's aesthetics: Overview and recent literaturePhilosophy Compass 4 (3): 380-406. 2009.In 1764, Kant published his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime and in 1790 his influential third Critique , the Critique of the Power of Judgment . The latter contains two parts, the 'Critique of the Aesthetic Power of Judgment' and the 'Critique of the Teleological Power of Judgment'. They reveal a new principle, namely the a priori principle of purposiveness ( Zweckmäßigkeit ) of our power of judgment, and thereby offer new a priori grounds for beauty and biology with…Read more
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55Beauty, Genius, and Mathematics: Why Did Kant Change His Mind?History of Philosophy Quarterly 18 (4). 2001.
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394Perry Link: An Anatomy of Chinese; Rhythm, Metaphor. Harvard University Press 2013 (review)Etudes Chinoises 33 (1): 174-181. 2014.
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6Chinese Perspectives on Free WillIn Kevin Timpe, Meghan Griffith & Neil Levy (eds.), Routledge Companion to Free Will., Routledge. pp. 374-388. 2017.The problem of free will as it is know in Western philosophical traditions is hardly known in China. Considering how central the problem is in the West, this is a remarkable fact. We try to explain this, and we offer insights into discussions within Chinese traditions that we think are related, not historically but regarding the issues discussed. Thus we introduce four central Chinese concepts, namely: (1) xīn 心 (heart, heart-mind), (2) xìng 性 (human nature, characteristic tendencies, inborn cap…Read more
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72Henry E. Allison, Kant's Theory of Taste, A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. CUP 2001 (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2002 (1). 2002.
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56Ethics and Zhuangzi: Awareness, Freedom, and AutonomyJournal of Chinese Philosophy 30 (1). 2003.
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100Karl Ameriks: Kant and the Historical Turn: Philosophy as Critical Interpretation. OUP 2007 (review)Mind 117 (467): 669-674. 2008.
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256How Pictorial is Chinese? And Does it Matter?Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society 18 317-319. 2010.It has often been said that the Chinese script is pictorial or ideographic, and that this is one of the reasons why Chinese tend to think more analogically than logically, and why in the past the natural sciences developed to a lesser degree in China than in the West. These are strong claims. They have often been oversimplified and exaggerated, but I think there is something to be said for them. Here I will focus on the first question. I will argue that Chinese characters still have semantic fea…Read more
Areas of Specialization
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Philosophy of Mind |
Aesthetics |
Asian Philosophy |
Free Will |
Immanuel Kant |
Ludwig Wittgenstein |