• Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy (edited book)
    Routledge. forthcoming.
  •  1
    4. Das Problem des Nezessitarismus (1p28–36)
    In Robert Schnepf & Michael Hampe (eds.), Baruch de Spinoza: Ethik in Geometrischer Ordnung Dargestellt, Akademie Verlag. pp. 59-80. 2006.
  •  6
    Spinoza on Diachronic Identity
    In Yitzhak Y. Melamed (ed.), A Companion to Spinoza, Wiley. 2021.
    This chapter examines how Spinoza deals with the identity problem by looking at his account of material and mental things. To understand how material things can remain the same over time, it looks at the “Physical Digression” where Spinoza explains the constitution of bodies. By using the structural criterion, Spinoza can solve a number of problems concerning identity and change. Spinoza would say that there is no identity between the body before and after the accident because the proportion bet…Read more
  •  25
    Complexity and Unity
    Recherches de Theologie Et Philosophie Medievales 89 (2): 335-392. 2023.
  •  18
    Is an Analytical Geistesgeschichte Possible? Four Theses
    Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft Und Geistesgeschichte 97 (1): 223-235. 2023.
    How is it possible to investigate philosophical texts analytically, but simultaneously to contextualize them historically and thus to pursue an analytic Geistesgeschichte? The following contribution answers this question in four theses: (1) According to the Nominalism-Thesis, individual texts as opposed to general trends or ideas are to be attended to. (2) The Relationism-Thesis holds that these texts are always to be related to other texts within their historical context. (3) The Multi-Perspect…Read more
  •  22
    Complexity and Unity: Peter of John Olivi and Henry of Ghent on the composition of the soul
    Recherches de Theologie Et Philosophie Medievales 89 (2): 335-392. 2022.
    All Aristotelians subscribed to the thesis that the soul as the principle of life has many powers. But how are the powers related to the soul’s essence? It has often been argued that medieval philosophers gave two answers to this ques- tion: some took them to be necessary accidents that are distinct from the soul’s essence, whereas others simply identified them with the essence. This paper intends to show that there were alternatives to these two standard models. Peter of John Olivi argued that …Read more
  •  6
    Does the soul have parts? What kind of parts? And how do all the parts make together a whole? Many ancient, medieval and early modern philosophers discussed these questions, thus providing a mereological analysis of the soul. The eleven chapters reconstruct and critically examine radically different theories. They make clear that the question of how a single soul can have an internal complexity was a crucial issue for many classical thinkers.
  • Perception in medieval philosophy
    In Mohan Matthen (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Perception, Oxford University Press Uk. 2015.
  •  1
    Kritische Studie
    Recherches de Theologie Et Philosophie Medievales 83 (2): 469-477. 2016.
    Review article of Christian Rode, _Zugänge zum Selbst. Innere Erfahrung in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit_, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, Neue Folge Band 79, Münster, Aschendorff Verlag, 2015.
  •  14
    Tobias Hoffmann: Free Will and the Rebel Angels in Medieval Philosophy (review)
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 60 (2): 340-341. 2022.
    Human beings quite often choose bad actions because of cognitive deficits: they fail to understand what they ought to do. But what about angels? They are, by definition, perfect in their cognition. How can they choose bad actions or even commit sins? At first sight, this problem seems to be of mere theological significance, for it is only in the context of Christian theology that angels are supposed to exist. However, a closer look reveals that the problem runs deeper, as Tobias Hoffmann makes c…Read more
  •  16
    This paper examines Elisabeth of Bohemia’s critique of Descartes’ internalist conception of happiness. According to this conception, we can all become happy because we can all make full use of our rational faculties and constantly follow our best judgments. Happiness is nothing but an “internal satisfaction” that arises when we act in accordance with these judgments. Elisabeth challenges this conception by pointing out that it is far too optimistic and that it neglects what is external to our ow…Read more
  •  4
    Aristoteles in der frühen Neuzeit
    In Christof Rapp & Klaus Corcilius (eds.), Aristoteles-Handbuch, Metzler. pp. 443-449. 2011.
    Die Auseinandersetzung mit Aristoteles und der aristotelischen Tradition war in der frühen Neuzeit geprägt durch eine Spannung zwischen polemischer Ablehnung und impliziter Weiterführung oder gar expliziter Zustimmung. Einerseits setzten sich Bacon, Descartes, Malebranche, Hobbes, Locke und zahlreiche andere ›moderne‹ Philosophen, die von der mechanistischen Physik beeinflusst waren, ganz entschieden von aristotelischen Prinzipien und Erklärungsmodellen ab. Allerdings beschäftigten sie sich kaum…Read more
  •  41
    Can We Know Substances? Suárez on a Sceptical Puzzle
    Theoria 88 (1): 244-269. 2022.
    It has often been said that the knowability of substances became a problem in the early modern period, when anti-Aristotelians doubted that we could know anything more than the sensory qualities that are present to us. This article argues that the late scholastic Aristotelian Francisco Suárez was already aware of this sceptical problem. On his view, substances are really (and not just modally) distinct from the perceivable qualities, and therefore cannot be known through sense perception. The ar…Read more
  •  8
    Eine kurze Hausbesichtigung: Erwiderung auf die Kommentare
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 69 (3): 498-505. 2021.
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie A bimonthly journal of international philosophical research As an open forum for discussion, the German Journal of Philosophy promotes dialogue and communication between different philosophical cultures, transcending any one school of thought. The journal primarily publishes studies that are actively engaged in modern international philosophical discourse and that explore new conceptual approaches. In addition to scholarly papers, essays, interviews, and symp…Read more
  •  28
    Ockham on Memory and Double Intentionality
    Topoi 41 (1): 133-142. 2020.
    Ockham developed two theories to explain the intentionality of memory: one theory that takes previously perceived things to be the objects of memory, and another that takes one’s own earlier acts of perceiving to be the objects of memory. This paper examines both theories, paying particular attention to the reasons that motivated Ockham to give up the first theory in favor of the second. It argues that the second theory is to be understood as a theory of double intentionality. At the core of thi…Read more
  •  8
    Suárez pursues a realist strategy when explaining habits: they are real qualities of the soul, acting as real causes and producing real activities. This chapter analyzes this thesis, examining it within the framework of Suárez’s metaphysics of the soul. It looks at the way he explains the necessity of habits, their generation, their co-operation with faculties, and their gradual changes. It emphasizes that habits are not simply “occult qualities,” as many early modern critics thought, but entiti…Read more
  •  6
    Spinoza on Skepticism
    In Michael Della Rocca (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza, Oxford University Press. pp. 220-239. 2017.
    Spinoza never discusses the scenario of radical skepticism as it was introduced by Descartes. Why not? This paper argues that he chooses a preventive strategy: instead of taking the skeptical challenge as it is and trying to refute it, he questions the challenge itself and gives a diagnosis of its origin. It is a combination of semantic atomism, dualism and anti-naturalism that gives rise to radical doubts. Spinoza attacks these basic assumptions, opting instead for semantic holism, anti-dualism…Read more
  •  3
    Perception in Medieval Philosophy
    In Mohan Matthen (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Perception, Oxford University Press. pp. 51-65. 2015.
    Perception has been for philosophers in the last few decades an area of compelling interest and intense investigation. In large part, the catalyst for this activity has come from contemporary cognitive science and neuroscience, which has been progressing at an accelerating pace, throwing up new information about the brain and new conceptions of how sensory information is processed and used. These new conceptions offer philosophers opportunities for reconceptualizing the senses—what they tell us,…Read more
  •  3
    Emotions and Rational Control: Two Medieval Perspectives
    In Alix Cohen & Robert Stern (eds.), Thinking about the Emotions: A Philosophical History, Oxford University Press. pp. 60-82. 2017.
    All medieval philosophers agreed that emotions ought to be controlled by reason, but they gave different accounts of the control that is possible. Aquinas took emotions to be sensory states that are under immediate rational control because both sensory and rational states are produced by a single soul. By contrast, Ockham distinguished two souls and two types of emotions, namely sensory ones that inevitably arise, and rational ones that can be changed by the will. This chapter examines the mecha…Read more
  •  5
    Self-Knowledge in Scholasticism
    In Ursula Renz (ed.), Self-Knowledge, Oxford University Press. pp. 114-130. 2017.
    All medieval philosophers in the Aristotelian tradition agreed that the human intellect is not only able to know other things, but also itself. But how should that be possible? Which cognitive mechanisms are required for self-knowledge? This chapter examines three models that attempted to answer this fundamental question: (i) Thomas Aquinas referred to higher-order acts that make first-order acts and eventually also the intellect itself cognitively present, (ii) Matthew of Aquasparta appealed to…Read more
  •  1
    Mind and Method
    In Stephan Schmid (ed.), Philosophy of Mind in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Routledge. pp. 22-40. 2018.
    This chapter explains the commitment to fundamental metaphysical claims that distinguishes various ways of examining the mind in the period between 1300 and 1600. It examines the functions of the soul, whereas the second analyzes them insofar as they are present in a living animal. Psychology as a special field of investigation was developed in the modern period; not until the late nineteenth century did it emerge as an independent discipline that was institutionally recognized as a branch of sc…Read more
  •  17
    Aquinas holds that human beings perceive material objects in a rational way, since their sensory faculty is always under the guidance of the rational faculty. This paper intends to shed light on this fundamental thesis. First, it examines the metaphysical background, focusing on Aquinas’s claim that there is just one soul with interconnected, hierarchically ordered faculties. Second, it looks at the interconnection in the case of perception, paying particular attention to the vis cogitativa. Thi…Read more
  •  16
    The Alienation Effect in the Historiography of Philosophy
    In Marcel van Ackeren (ed.), Philosophy and the Historical Perspective, Oxford University Press. pp. 140-154. 2018.
    It has often been said that we should enter into a dialogue with thinkers of the past because they discussed they same problems we still have today and presented sophisticated solutions to them. I argue that this “dialogue model” ignores the specific context in which many problems were created and defined. A closer look at various contexts enables us to see that philosophical problems are not as natural as they might seem. When we contextualize them, we experience a healthy alienation effect: we…Read more
  •  5
    Das Problem des Selbstwissens wird nicht erst in der gegenwartigen Philosophie des Geistes kontrovers diskutiert. Bereits im Spatmittelalter gab es eine intensive Debatte daruber, ob und wie der menschliche Geist Wissen von sich selbst und seinen eigenen Akten und Zustanden haben kann. Der vorliegende Band macht erstmals zentrale Texte in einer zweisprachigen Ausgabe zuganglich. Einfuhrungen zu den jeweiligen Autoren und ihren Texten bieten Interpretationshilfen und ermoglichen sowohl einen hist…Read more
  •  3
    Gr.-8°, Ln. m. SU. XIII, 342 S. Neuwertiges Ex. / Fine Copy // Descartes` Ideentheorie ist in der neueren Forschung immer wieder als Ausgangspunkt des neuzeitlichen "way of ideas" dargestellt worden, der in einen verhängnisvollen Repräsentationalismus mündet. Denn Cartesische Ideen scheinen so etwas wie mentale Objekte in einer "inneren Arena" zu sein. Da wir nur zu diesen mentalen Objekten einen unmittelbaren Zugang haben, können wir höchstens auf die Existenz äußerer Objekte schließen, wir kön…Read more