Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
  • Hermeneutics
    In Brian Leiter & Michael Rosen (eds.), The Oxford handbook of continental philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2007.
  •  5
    Foreignizing Translation and Chinese
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 50 (3): 225-242. 2023.
    This article explains a new ‘foreignizing’ approach to translation that was invented in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, especially by Herder and Schleiermacher, and that has since become the predominant approach in translation theory. The article argues that despite the great virtues of this approach, it was based on an unduly narrow restriction to Indo-European languages, which leaves considerable room for further improvement. Greater attention to Hebrew has since made up this deficit t…Read more
  •  10
    The Cambridge Companion to Hermeneutics (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 2018.
    Hermeneutics, the study of interpretation, is an essential and valuable branch of philosophy. Hermeneutics is also a central component of the methodology of the social sciences and the humanities, for example historiography, anthropology, art history, and literary criticism. In a sequence of accessible chapters, contributors across the human sciences explain the leading concepts and ideas of hermeneutics, the historical development of the field, the importance of hermeneutics in philosophy today…Read more
  •  86
    Genealogy and Morality
    American Dialectic 1 (3): 346-369. 2011.
    In a previous article in this journal, “Genealogy,” I offered a sort of “genealogy of genealogy,” an account of the method’s development, according to which it mainly grew, not from English or French antecedents, but out of a German tradition that began with Herder and then continued with Hegel before eventually culminating in Nietzsche himself. [...] Presupposing this account of the method of genealogy, the present article will consider the method in relation to one of its most important areas …Read more
  •  96
    Genealogy
    American Dialectic 1 (2): 230-250. 2011.
    Nietzsche and Foucault famously employ a philosophical method of “genealogy” and apply it to the realm of morality in particular. In this article I would like to do two main things: I will begin by offering a contribution toward a sort of “genealogy of genealogy,” that is, toward an account of how the method emerged historically. I will then give an explanation of how the method is supposed to work. In a subsequent, companion article in this journal, “Genealogy and Morality,” I will discuss the …Read more
  •  23
    Philosophy of language
    In Glock, Hans Johann (2015). Philosophy of language. In: Forster, Michael N; Gjesdal, Kristin. The Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 371-397, . pp. 371-397. 2015.
  •  136
    Oxford Handbook of German Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 2015.
    This volume constitutes the first collective critical study of German philosophy in the nineteenth century. A team of leading experts explore the influential figures associated with the period--including Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Frege--and provide fresh accounts of the philosophical movements and key debates with which they engaged
  •  3
    The Autonomy of Grammar
    In Hans-Johann Glock & John Hyman (eds.), A Companion to Wittgenstein, Wiley-blackwell. 2017.
    Ludwig Wittgenstein in his later works often implies commitment to a doctrine of the autonomy or arbitrariness of grammar. This chapter discusses the conception of grammar that is presupposed in this doctrine and then explains the doctrine itself. The chapter also explains a sense in which grammar is not autonomous or arbitrary for Wittgenstein and discusses some possible criticisms of the doctrine. It should be noted at the outset that this whole area of exegetical concern is one in which the f…Read more
  •  7
    Hegel and Skepticism
    Harvard University Press. 1989.
    Forster demonstrates that Hegel did not in fact ignore epistemology, but on the contrary he fought a tireless and subtle campaign to defeat the threat of skepticism. Forster's work should dispel once and for all the view that Hegel was naive or careless in epistemological matters. Along the way, Forster makes much that has hither to remained obscure in Hegel's texts intelligible for the first time.
  •  30
    Johann Gottfried Von Herder
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.
  •  11
    Does Every Genuine Philosophy Have a Skeptical Side?
    Review of Metaphysics 75 (2): 219-264. 2021.
  •  51
    Hegel and skepticism
    Harvard University Press. 1989.
    This book should cause a re-evaluation of Hegel, and German Idealism generally, and contribute to a re-evaluation of the skeptical tradition in philosophy.
  •  2
    Die Aktualität der Romantik (edited book)
    Lit. 2012.
  •  7
    Practical Philosophy West and East
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 49 (4): 327-341. 2022.
    This article offers a broad-ranging comparison of practical philosophy in the West and in China with a view to enabling not only better mutual understanding between the two sides but also better self-understanding on each side. Contrary to widespread Western conceptions that Chinese practical philosophy may have contributed some important principles in first-order morality but has contributed little in the area of meta-ethics as compared to the West, it is argued here that Chinese practical phil…Read more
  •  9
    Practical Philosophy – East and West
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 49 (4): 323-326. 2022.
  •  3
    Russian Thought and Russian Thinkers
    In Marina F. Bykova, Michael N. Forster & Lina Steiner (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Russian Thought, Springer Verlag. pp. 777-787. 2021.
    The Afterword reevaluates Isaiah Berlin’s highly influential collection of essays, Russian Thinkers, and suggests that some of Berlin’s views are either somewhat dated or tendentious. It sketches out a new vision of the Russian intellectual tradition as perceived from the twenty-first-century Anglophone perspective.
  •  9
    The Palgrave Handbook of Russian Thought (edited book)
    with Marina F. Bykova and Lina Steiner
    Springer Verlag. 2021.
    This volume is a comprehensive Handbook of Russian thought that provides an in-depth survey of major figures, currents, and developments in Russian intellectual history, spanning the period from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. Written by a group of distinguished scholars as well as some younger ones from Russia, Europe, the United States, and Canada, this Handbook reconstructs a vibrant picture of the intellectual and cultural life in Russia and the Soviet Union during…Read more
  •  2
    Critique
    In Ludger Kühnhardt & Tilman Mayer (eds.), The Bonn Handbook of Globality: Volume 1, Springer Verlag. pp. 363-373. 2019.
    The modern concept of critique was originally formed mainly by Kant but was subsequently taken over and modified by the tradition of Hegel, Marx, and the Frankfurt School. This article considers Kant’s concept of critique in some detail, including his historical and autobiographical conception that metaphysics passes from dogmatism to skepticism to critique. It also sketches the modification of the concept by Hegel, Marx, and the Frankfurt School into one of social critique, a theory of social i…Read more
  •  10
    Wittgenstein on the Arbitrariness of Grammar
    Princeton University Press. 2005.
    What is the nature of a conceptual scheme? Are there alternative conceptual schemes? If so, are some more justifiable or correct than others? The later Wittgenstein already addresses these fundamental philosophical questions under the general rubric of "grammar" and the question of its "arbitrariness"--and does so with great subtlety. This book explores Wittgenstein's views on these questions. Part I interprets his conception of grammar as a generalized version of Kant's transcendental idealist …Read more
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  •  7
    Herder's Philosophy
    Oxford University Press. 2018.
    Johann Gottfried Herder is a towering figure in modern thought, but one who has hitherto been severely underappreciated. Michael Forster seeks to rectify that situation by exploring the full range of his ideas, and showing their enormous impact in philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, and comparative literature.
  •  44
    Forms of Reasoning in Western and Chinese Philosophy
    Journal of Chinese Philosophy 44 (1-2): 10-32. 2017.
    I would like in this article to make some tentative comparative observations about several sorts of reasoning in Western and Chinese philosophy. I try to say something about three important forms of reasoning: logic, skepticism, and practical reason. In each of these cases one can find strands of Chinese philosophy that are strikingly similar to counterparts in Western philosophy. And while in two of the cases in question the strands involved are less common and less fully developed than their W…Read more
  •  18
    Private and Shared Taste in Art and Face Appreciation
    with Helmut Leder, Juergen Goller, and Tanya Rigotti
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 10. 2016.