About Me
Currently, I am working on my habilitation thesis in theoretical philosophy, which focusses on philosophical terminology, epistemology, and philosophy of language. I co-edit the first general handbook in metaphilosophy (Springer/Metzler) and have initiated the Center for Metaphilosophical Research (CMPHR). I teach or have taught courses in philosophy at the University of Potsdam (2024-), Goethe University Frankfurt (2023-), University of Wuppertal (2020-2024), and University of Koblenz and Landau (2020-2021).
I have led two research groups, projects “Metaphilosophy and its Relevance for the Philosophical Practice” (Priority 2030) and “Perspectivism as an Epistemological Program” (funding: RSCF), at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University Kaliningrad between 2022 and 2023. I have also been the principal investigator in the project “How is Metaphilosophy Possible as a Unified Discipline?” (funding: Fritz Thyssen Foundation) at the University of Koblenz and Landau (2021-2022) with research stays at the University of Oxford and the University of Pittsburgh. Between 2020 and 2021, I have worked on several topics from Kant’s philosophy as a researcher at the Academia Kantiana and the Kantian Rationality Lab (a major international research team) at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University Kaliningrad. I have defended my doctorate thesis on the concept and justification of reason in Kant, Fichte, and in general in September 2019 after receiving a doctorate scholarship from the University of Wuppertal.
Contact
michael.lewin.di [at] gmail.com
News
2024
Presentation on the topic 'Simple Empirical Concepts and Philosophy' at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, September 11, 2024.
Abstract: Philosophy traditionally deals with such lexicalized concepts as ‘wisdom’, ‘virtue’, ‘reason’, ‘world view’, ‘metaphysics’, and ‘philosophy’. They belong to the corpus of complex demanding concepts that trigger interest in philosophy, particularly because they are hard to understand and explain. It is all the more surprising that many contemporary philosophers focus on such simple empirical concepts as ‘dog’, ‘cow’, ‘chair’, and ‘gorse’ to build their theories and provide examples. While the preoccupation with simple empirical concepts can be motivated by the ideals of simplicity, vividness, clarity, and concreteness, it involves certain methodological problems and dangers for philosophy.
My presentation will contain three parts. In the first part, I will explain why the distinction between complex demanding concepts and simple empirical concepts works better than classifying concepts into pure vs. empirical (Kant) and abstract vs. concrete (e.g., in psycholinguistics and concreteness ratings). The second part will elaborate on semantic and onomantic structural similarities between the two classes of concepts. In particular, it will be argued that complex demanding concepts and simple empirical concepts share the same semantic structure (lexicalization plus conceptual content and reference, even if the reference is not always clear in the case of complex concepts). In the onomantic perspective, all lexemes that express concepts (the names of concepts, e.g., ‘wisdom’ and ‘chair’) have empirical and metaphorical origins. In the third and last part, I will argue that structural similarities are insufficient to justify the equal treatment of complex demanding concepts and simple empirical concepts. Such factors as the availability of empirical data, identification of the referent, historical and theoretical loadedness, complexity, and demandedness indicate that complex demanding concepts and simple empirical concepts should be addressed in different ways. The focus on simple empirical concepts and one-method approach to different classes of concepts is harmful for philosophy in the long run.
Out now: Lewin, M. (Hg). 2024. Klassische Deutsche Philosophie. Wege in die Zukunft. Paderborn: Brill/mentis.
https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/68239
My main
messages are:
(1) For Kant,
Fichte, and Hegel, secondary literature on Kant, Fichte, and Hegel is not
philosophy in the proper sense. It is best to think the relation between the
history of philosophy, philosophy, and its future in terms of a set of virtues
that should be binding both for the historians of philosophy and philosophers.
(2)
Philosophers conceptualize a lot, generate, analyze, and engineer concepts. They
often either equate ‘words’ and ‘concepts’ or consider words only as means of
expression of their ‘concepts’. I suggest that philosophers should learn to
distinguish between ‘words’ and ‘concepts’. Philosophers’ terms are often
incompatible or partially incompatible with philosophers’ ‘concepts’. Examples
are ‘isms’ in philosophy and the conception of reason. If ‘talking about the
same matter’ is a prerequisite for fruitful philosophical debates, words and
their analysis should have at least some limiting and guiding power over
concepts.
Many more messages are inside the book (see the short description and the table of contents):
In seiner „Kritik der reinen Vernunft“ unterscheidet Immanuel Kant zwischen rationaler und historischer philosophischer Erkenntnis. Erkenntnis ist historisch, wenn man sich nach fremder Vernunft bildet, und rational, wenn man Erkenntnisse aus eigener Vernunft schöpft. Dazwischen liegt die historisch-rationale philosophische Geschichte der Philosophie. Die Beiträge in diesem Band machen sich alle drei Perspektiven zunutze. Unter den behandelten Themen sind formale Logik, das ‚Transzendentale‘, der Begriff des Begriffs, Begriffsanalyse und Sprachanalyse, Vernunft, Biomimetik, Idealismus, logische Analyse formaler und realer Gegenstände, Asylrecht und Umweltethik. Im Fokus stehen dabei Überlegungen zur Aktualität, Zukunftsrelevanz und zu Weiterentwicklungsmöglichkeiten der Theorien von Kant, Reinhold, Fichte, Schelling und Hegel.
The anthology reflects on the actuality, future relevance, problems and possibilities of further development of theories of Kant, Reinhold, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. Among topics treated are formal logic, the concept of the concept, conceptual and linguistic analysis, reason, the ‘transcendental’, biomemetics, idealism, logical analysis of formal and real objects, asylum law, and environmental ethics.
Table of contents:
2023
The project "Perspectivism as an Epistemological Program" has reached the finish line.
My project “Perspectivism as an Epistemological Program” has come to an end. It ran between 2022 and 2023 and was funded by the Russian Science Foundation. The team consisted of me (PI) and three colleagues from the IKBFU Kaliningrad. We have asked ourselves whether perspectivism is a position, program, methodology, or heuristic, and what its content would possibly be. If one looks at the history of philosophy, it is not clear what ‘perspectivism’ designates. It is also not clear how perspectivism relates to relativism, contextualism, realism, and hermeneutics. This is what kept us busy for two years. The idea was to approach perspectivism via an analysis of the network of epistemic terminology used in historical and contemporary works on perspectivism. As a result, this metaepistemological inquiry has changed our understanding of the use of ‘isms’ in epistemology and epistemology in general. Furthermore, I have tested a certain semantic approach during the project that I plan to develop further.
P.S. The journal ‘Philosophies’ has chosen my article as the cover of their first issue in 2024. The cover picture is my personal photo of Jean Arp’s “Man Seen by a Flower”. A philosophical mind will come up with many ideas when interpreting this work of art. It is certain that many of these ideas have been thought through by the research team.
Here is the list of our publications:
- Lewin, M. 2023. What is Perspectivism? Research Result. Social Studies and Humanities 9/3, 5-14. (in Rus.). https://doi.org/10.18413/2408-932X-2023-9-3-0-1.
- Lewin, M., Chaly, V., Lugovoy, S., and Kornilaev, L. 2023. History of Perspectivism and the Status of Perspectivist Concepts. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Philosophy and Conflict Studies 39/2: 249-260. (in Rus.). https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu17.2023.204.
- Lewin, M., Chaly V., Lugovoy, S., and Kornilaev L. The Conceptual Basis of Perspectivism. Philosophy of the History of Philosophy (2023, in press, in Rus.).
- Lewin, M. Relativism, Perspectivism, and the Universal Epistemic Language. Philosophy of the History of Philosophy (2024, in press, in Eng.).
- Lewin, M. 2024. Nietzsche Was No Perspectivist. Philosophies 9/1, 9, 1-12. (in Eng.). https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9010009.
- Lewin, M. 2022. The Faculty of Ideas. Kant’s Concept of Reason in the Narrower Sense, Open Philosophy 5/1: 340-359. https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2022-0203.
- Chaly, V. Scientific Perspectivism: Realism, Anti-Realism or a New Paradigm? Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science (2023, forthcoming, in Rus.).
- Chaly, V. Philosophy and Neuroscience: Perspectives for Interaction. RUDN Journal of Philosophy (2023, in press, in Rus.).
- Kornilaev L. Perspectivism and Contextualism. Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science (2023, forthcoming, in Rus.).
- Kornilaev, L. Phenomenology and Perspectivism as Epistemic Strategies. Philosophy of the History of Philosophy (2024, in press, in Rus.).
- Lugovoy, S. Concepts and Meaningful Schemes of Hermeneutic Perspectivism. Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science (2023, forthcoming, in Rus.).
- Lugovoy, S. Elements of Perspectivism in Kant’s Epistemology. Kantian Journal (2024, forthcoming, in Rus. and Eng.).
HFPO
Lecture at the research colloquium of the Hodges Foundation for Philosophical Orientation, October 24, 2023
I have followed the invitation to give the first lecture at the newly initiated research colloquium dedicated to Werner Stegmaier’s work on philosophical orientation called “Linguistic Originalism as a Form of Etymological Orientation in Philosophy”.
The topical issue "Kant and Metaphilosophy" is out now!
There is a growing interest in both Kant’s conception of philosophy and contemporary metaphilosophy, understood as philosophical inquiry into philosophy, its aims, purpose, subjects, structure, practice, and methods. Kant has not contributed to metaphilosophy qua contemporary discipline, but his direct analyses of what philosophy is and how it is to be done can be identified with general subjects and problems constituting the research field of metaphilosophy. The current collection will focus on several aspects of Kant’s conception of philosophy and its metaphilosophical value, such as the taxonomy of philosophy, relation between empirical and non-empirical philosophy, relation between philosophy and its history, conceptual analysis, deductive reasoning, and philosophical disagreement.
The issue consists of five contributions, including my debate article with T. Williamson “Kant and Analysis”.
A course on metaphilosophy at the Goethe University Frankfurt
I am giving a seminar on the foundations of metaphilosophy in the winter term 2023/24 at the Goethe University Frankfurt.
Center for Metaphilosophical Research (CMPHR)
I have initiated the Center for Metaphilosophical Research (CMPHR). More infos are available at https://cmphr.one/
The Center for Metaphilosophical Research (CMPHR) aims at developing an international research network in the field of metaphilosophy. The overall goal is to foster theoretical inquiry into philosophy, its nature and methods, for a better understanding of philosophy and a better philosophical practice. One of the current (2023-2026) major tasks of the Center is the edition of the first handbook in metaphilosophy, which will be published by Metzler (Springer). The CMPHR will also organize public events in metaphilosophy.
HANDBUCH METAPHILOSOPHIE
"Handbuch Metaphilosophie", Springer/Metzler, 2024-2026.
Handbuch Metaphilosophie will be published by Michael Lewin and Daniel Minkin as Springer Reference Live Handbook (starting in 2024). A printed version will appear with Springer/Metzler. It will contain 40-50 contributions under three sections: (I) meta-metaphilosophy, (II) philosophical metadisciplines; (III) metaphilosophical positions, directions, and traditions, and (IV) metaphilosophical topics.
"Metaphilosophie als einheitliche Disziplin" is out now.
2022
The Topical Issue on Kant's Transcendental Dialectic is Complete
Conference: "What is Metaphilosophy?"
Send me an email to register. Click here: Program MP22 for the conference program in PDF.
September 7, 2022
14:45 Greetings and Introduction
15:00 – 16:00 Nicholas Rescher (University of Pittsburgh) Positioning Metaphilosophy
16:00 – 17:00 Jelscha Schmid (University of Basel) Metaphilosophy as First Philosophy: from Kant to Fichte
17:00 – 18:00 Richard Raatzsch (EBS University for Business and Law) How Weird is Philosophizing!
September 8, 2022
10:00 – 11:00 Fausto Fraisopi (University of Freiburg) Metaphilosophy: Doctrine, Threshold or Dimension?
11:00 – 12:00 Joachim Horvath (Ruhr University Bochum) Thought Experiments and Arguments
14:00 – 15:00 Anna-Maria Eder (TU Dresden / University of Cologne) Idealizations in Epistemology
15:00 – 16:00 Insa Lawler (University of North Carolina), in cooperation with Finnur Dellsén und James Norton (University of Iceland) Would Disagreement Undermine Progress?
16:00 – 17:00 Paul Hoyningen-Huene (Leibniz University Hannover / University of Zurich) In Which Sense is Philosophy Scientific?
September 9, 2022
10:00 – 11:00 Thomas Arnold (Heidelberg University) Socratic Shifts. Notes on Plato’s Metaphilosophy
11:00 – 12:00 Michael Lewin (University of Koblenz and Landau) Metaphilosophy as a Unified Discipline
14:00 – 15:00 Daniel Minkin (University of Marburg) Metaphilosophical Skepticism: A (New) Threat to Philosophy as a Rational Enterprise?
15:00 – 16:00 Timothy Williamson (University of Oxford) Reflecting on One’s Own Philosophical Practice
* All times are CET.
Academic Guest Visitor // University of Pittsburgh
I have met Nicholas Rescher in the “Cathedral of Learning” and discussed his “Philosophy Examined. Metaphilosophy in Pragmatic Perspective” (2021, De Gruyter) with him. (On the foto I hold a signed copy of N. Rescher’s another book on metaphilosophy). I have left a copy of my “Das System der Ideen” in the building.
Academic Visitor // University of Oxford
At the moment I am an Academic Visitor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford (Trinity term, Timothy Williamson).
Contract with Springer
I have moved into my office in Landau and signed a contract with Springer for my second book: “Metaphilosophie als einheitliche Disziplin”.
2021
Workshop for Early Career Researchers: "Ideas in Kant's Transcendental Philosophy"
Online Workshop for Early Career Researchers
December 17–18, 2021
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU), Kaliningrad
Organized by the “Kantian Rationality Lab”
Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Vadim Chaly (IKBFU, Kaliningrad)
Dr. Michael Lewin (IKBFU, Kaliningrad)
Dr. Rudolf Meer (University of Graz)
WORKSHOP PROGRAM (All time CET)
December 17, 2021
Section 1
13.00-14.00 Keynote presentation: Marcus Willaschek: Content and function of Kantian ideas
14.00-15.00 Stephen Howard (Leuven) The twofold use of the cosmological ideas
15.00-16.00 Is there, despite of different types of ideas, a general concept of ideas in Kant? (discussion led by Michael Lewin, as a spontaneous replacement for the cancelled talk by Daniel Pepe (Chicago) Kant’s theory of history: the idea of universal history in the critical philosophy)
Section 2
16.30-17.30 Keynote presentation: Thomas Sturm Beyond God, world, and soul: Kantian ideas in the special sciences
17.30-18.30 Mathis Koschel (Chicago) The idea of mechanism
December 18, 2021
13.00-14.00 Görg Erdmann (Bochum) On Kant’s conception of space as a mere idea – The twofold nature of space in the works of Newton and Kant
Section 3
14.00-15.00 William Marsolek (Ohio) The Unity of arithmetic in Kant’s ‘Architectonic’
15.00-16.00 Luciana Martínez (IKBFU) Some remarks on Kantian doctrine of aesthetic ideas
16.00-17.00 Keynote presentation: Karin de Boer: What does it mean to determine ideas of reason in thought? The case of Kant’s transcendental theology
More infos and the link to zoom: https://philevents.org/event/show/92698
Fritz Thyssen Research Grant: Metaphilosophy (2021-22)
The Fritz Thyssen Foundation will support my research project on metaphilosophy. It will be carried out at the Institute of Philosophy Landau, University of Koblenz-Landau (Christian Bermes) with additional support of the EBS University of Business and Law (Richard Raatzsch). I will explore how metaphilosophy is possible as a unified discipline from the view of logical perspectivism.
Wie ist Metaphilosophie als einheitliche Disziplin möglich?
Die sich seit den 1960ern im Rahmen fortschreitender Ausdifferenzierung philosophischer Forschungsbereiche entwickelnde Disziplin der Philosophiephilosophie bzw. Metaphilosophie ist mit dem Problem der philosophischen Vorbelastetheit metaphilosophischer Theorien behaftet, das sich in der Reproduktion des jeweiligen besonderen Verständnisses der Philosophie auf metaphilosophischer Ebene manifestiert. Das kann mitunter dazu führen, dass eine einzelne Forschungsrichtung die Metaphilosophie für sich allein beansprucht.
Diesem Grundproblem metaphilosophischer Forschung soll ausgehend von der logischen Analyse der Standpunktbezogenheit, d.h. perspektivistisch begegnet werden. Das Ziel ist der Nachweis, dass mangelhaftes oder fehlendes Verständnis der perspektivistischen Logik auf philosophischer Ebene sich auch auf die Qualität metaphilosophischer Forschung ausbreitet, deren Einheit nur unter der Idee eines im Vorhinein positionierungs- und richtungsübergreifend ausgerichteten Diskurses möglich ist. Die Ergebnisse des Projektes sollen in einem Essay in Buchform veröffentlicht werden. Des Weiteren ist für das Jahr 2022 eine thematisch einschlägige Tagung geplant.
How is Metaphilosophy Possible as a Unified Discipline?
The discipline of philosophy of philosophy or metaphilosophy, which has been developing since the 1960s in the context of progressive differentiation of philosophical research fields, is afflicted with the problem of the philosophical bias of metaphilosophical theories, which manifests itself in the reproduction of the respective particular understanding of philosophy at the metaphilosophical level. This can sometimes lead to a situation where a single research direction claims metaphilosophy for itself alone.
This basic problem of metaphilosophical research shall be approached starting from the logical analysis of standpoint relatedness, i.e. perspectivistically. The goal is to demonstrate that deficient or absent understanding of perspectivist logic at the philosophical level also spreads to the quality of metaphilosophical research, the unity of which is only possible under the idea of a discourse that transcends positioning and direction in advance. The results of theproject are to be published in an essay in book form. Furthermore, a thematically relevant conference is planned for 2022.
"Das System der Ideen" is out now.
Das System der Ideen. Zur perspektivistisch-metaphilosophischen Begründung der Vernunft im Anschluss an Kant und Fichte is available now and can be purchased here.
Click here for the analytical table of contents.
Professional University Teaching Certificate
After one year of work, a total of 204 work units of 45 minutes, I have received the “Professional Teaching Competence for Universities” certificate, the highest German certificate in university didactics following the guidelines of the German Association for Educational and Academic Staff Development in Higher Education.
Flashback and -forward: Teaching
– Students in my course “Perspectivism and Relativism” experienced Werner Stegmaier‘s model of orientational perspectivism during a walk, taking a break from their screens.
– German metaphilosophers Dr. Brendan Theunissen (see my review), PD Dr. Fausto Fraisopi, and Prof. Dr. Richard Raatzsch visited my metaphilosophy course with almost 200 participants to discuss theses from their recent books.
– My course on the triad “Reason – reasonability – rationality. Concepts of reason from Kant to Welsch” will be open to the studium generale.
Research Stay // Russian State Library Moscow
I am on a research stay in Moscow. I work on Kant’s metaphilosophy (within the KRL research project) in the Russian State Library, the largest library in Russia and the fifth largest library in the world. The output will be a paper on Kant’s metaphilosophy. Also, I will give a course on this topic in the summer semester at the IKBFU.
Kantian Rationality Lab
I have joined the Kantian Rationality Lab at the Academia Kantiana, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University. The KRL is led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Sturm and is currently one of the biggest research projects in philosophy funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, project: “Kantian Rationality and Its Impact in Contemporary Science, Technology, and Social Institutions”. At the KRL, I work on Kant’s metaphilosophy and metaphilosophy in general.
Click here for more infos.
2020
Topical Issue on Kant's Transcendental Dialectic
Open Philosophy has accepted our proposal (with Rudolf Meer) to publish the topical issue “Kant’s Transcendental Dialectic: A Re-Evaluation”. The issue (open access) will appear in 2022.
Click here for the official CfP and stylesheet. Click here for the journal’s site.
Academia Kantiana
I have joined the Academia Kantiana, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad, as senior research fellow. The Academia Kantiana, led by Prof. Dr. Nina A. Dmitrieva, has been for many decades a home to Kant research in Russia and worldwide. It organizes international events and hosts summer schools by leading Kant researchers (such as Heiner F. Klemme, Jürgen Stolzenberg, Thomas Sturm, and Konstantin Pollok). It publishes the Kantian Journal, one of the leading journals in Kant research indexed in the international database for high-quality journals SCOPUS.
In 2024, the IKBFU Kaliningrad hosts the next international congress of the Kant-Gesellschaft that marks the 300th anniversary of Immanuel Kant.
2019
Doctorate Thesis
I have defended my doctorate thesis on Kant’s and Fichte’s concept of reason (in the narrow sense) and its grounding from a perspectivistic-metaphilosophical point of view // Bergische Universität Wuppertal.