Chair of Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Mind

Prof. Dr. Thomas Khurana

Chair of Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Mind

Campus Am Neuen Palais
Am Neuen Palais 10
14469 Potsdam
House: 11, Room: 2.04

Assistant
Martina Geffke
Am Neuen Palais 10
14469 Potsdam
House: 11, Room: 2.06
geffke@uni-potsdam.de
Tel.: (+49 [0]331) 977-113135

consulting hours
Thursdays 14:10-15:10 — registration via https://go.oncehub.com/Sprechstunde_Khurana is requested.

News

Lecture on October 4 at the Conference “Modernity in Question in Marx and the Young Hegelians” at Johns Hopkins University. To follow the conference on Zoom, register here.
Conference on Regulative Principles in Kant and Post-Kantian Thought, October 08-09, University of Potsdam.
Lecture on November 5 at the conference “Hegel über das Ich”, University of Heidelberg
Lecture on November 7 at the conference “II COLÓQUIO HEGEL, MARX E A CONTEMPORANEIDADE - CRISE ECOLÓGICA E PONTOS DE RUPTURA” at the University of Parana, Brazil. You can follow the lecture online here
Panel discussion at the Goethe-Institut Brussels on Kant's relationship to colonialism on November 29, 2024.
Lecture at the Institute Colloquium of the Institute of Philosophy at Leipzig University on January 30, 2025.
Panel discussion at the German Historical Museum on February 05, 2025
Lecture at the Anthropocene Conference at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, February 12-14, 2025
Lecture at the conference “Ontological Turning Points: Ecological Crisis and Post-Truth” at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, March 13-14, 2025.
You can find the events of the Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy here. To stay up to date with our events and fellows you can register for our newsletterand follow the center on Twitter/X. You can find videos of our past events on our Youtube channel and in our media library.
The Departmental Colloquium of the Institute of Philosophy will take place on Thursdays, 16.15-17.45 h; House 11, Room 0.09. For regular information on the Colloquium, please subscribe to our newsletter. You can download the program here.

CV

since 2021 – Director of the Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy

since 2020 — Chair of Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Mind, University of Potsdam

2020-21 — Max Kade Virtual Visiting Professor, Yale University

2017-20 — Heisenberg Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Yale University

2017-20 — Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Essex

2014-17 — Interim Chair, University of Leipzig and Goethe University Frankfurt

2010-11 — Humboldt Fellow, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago

2009-14 — Research Fellow, Institute of Philosophy and Excellence Cluster "Normative Orders", Goethe University Frankfurt

2009 — Heuss Visiting Lecturer, New School for Social Research

2005-09 — Research Assistant and Coordinator of the Graduate Research Group "Life Forms and Knowledge of Life", University of Potsdam

Research Interests

Kant and Hegel; Post-Kantian European Philosophy; Social Philosophy and Political Philosophy; Ethics and Aesthetics; Philosophical Anthropology and Philosophy of Mind; Critical Theory; Psychoanalysis

Research Projects

Second Nature; Self-Consciousness and Self-Objectification; Sociality of the Human Life-Form

Publications

Monographs

The Life of Freedom in Kant and Hegel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in preparation.

Das Leben der Freiheit. Form und Wirklichkeit der Autonomie, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2017.

Sinn und Gedächtnis. Die Zeitlichkeit des Sinns und die Figuren ihrer Reflexion, München: Fink 2007.

Die Dispersion des Unbewussten. Freud – Lacan – Luhmann, Gießen: Psychosozial-Verlag 2002.

Edited Books and Collections

Recognition and the Second Person, guest-edited special issue of the European Journal of Philosophy 29:3 (2021).

Negativität: Kunst – Recht – Politik, ed. with D. Quadflieg, J. Rebentisch, F. Raimondi, D. Setton, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2018.

"Schwerpunkt: Ästhetik der zweiten Natur", in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 66:3 (2018), pp. 321-382.

The Freedom of Life: Hegelian Perspectives (Freiheit und Gesetz III), Berlin: August Verlag 2013.

"Philosophies of Life", guest-edited with C. Menke, special issue of Constellations 18:1 (2011), pp. 6-73.

Paradoxien der Autonomie (Freiheit und Gesetz I), ed. with C. Menke, Berlin: August Verlag 2011; second edition 2019.

Latenz. 40 Annäherungen an einen Begriff, ed. with S. Diekmann, Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos 2007.

Recent Papers

"The Exteriority of Thinking: Hegel and Heidegger", in: European Journal of Philosophy 32:3 (2024)

„Altera Natura: Das Anthropozän als ästhetisches Problem“, in: Dritte Natur 06/1.2023, 171-184.

"Self-knowledge and knowledge of nature: On the speculative character of their identity", in James Conant & Jesse M. Mulder (eds.), Reading Rödl: On Self-Consciousness and Objectivity. London: Routledge (2023)

„Die Unheimlichkeit des Gewöhnlichen: Husserl – Wittgenstein – Cavell", in J. Umgelenk, A. Hordych (Hrsg), Trouble Every Day. Zum Schrecken des Alltäglichen, München: Fink 2023.

"'European Savages': Kant's Defence and Critique of Colonialism, in Historische Urteilskraft 05 (2023)

"Die 'europäischen Wilden': Kants Verteidigung und Kritik des Kolonialismus", in: Historische Urteilskraft 5 (2023).

"Dialektische Anthropologie – oder romantischer Idealismus?", in Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 71:2 (2023), 304–311.

"Genus-Being: On Marx's Dialectical Naturalism", in: L. Corti, J.-G. Schülein (Hg.), Nature and Naturalism in Classical German Philosophy, London, 2022.

"Art of Second Nature: Modern Culture after Kant", in: Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 43:1 (2022).

"Gattungswesen: Zur Sozialität der menschlichen Lebensform", in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 70:3 (2022), pp. 373–399.

"True Right Against Formal Right: The Body of Right and the Limits of Property", in: D. Moyar, S. Rand, K. Walsh-Padgett (Hg.), Hegel’s Philosophy of Right after 200 Years, London: Routledge 2022.

"Ein Recht gegen das Recht: Der Körper des Rechts und die Grenzen des Eigentums", in: Rechte des Körpers, Berlin: de Gruyter 2022.

„The Life of Form“, in: Ways of Being Bound: Perspectives from post-Kantian Philosophy and Relational Sociology, Berlin: Springer 2022.

"Stufe der Differenz. Zur zweiten Natur der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft nach Kant und Hegel", in: J. Christ, A. Honneth (eds.), Zweite Natur: Stuttgarter Hegel-Kongress 2017, Frankfurt/M.: Klostermann, pp. 161-192.

"Leben – Die Natur der Sittlichkeit: Eine Einleitung", in: J. Christ, A. Honneth (eds.), Zweite Natur: Stuttgarter Hegel-Kongress 2017, Frankfurt/M.: Klostermann, pp. 287-294.

"This other life that knows itself as life", in: European Journal of Philosophy 29:4 (2021), pp. 1136-1144.

"The Struggle for Recognition and the Authority of the Second Person", in: European Journal of Philosophy 29:3 (2021), pp. 1-10.

"The Irony of Self-Consciousness", in: D. Finkelde, C. Menke, S. Žižek (eds.), Parallax: The Dialectics of Mind and World, London: Bloomsbury.

"Hegels Traum", Merkur-Blog, 27 August 2020.

"Stage of Difference: Civil Society in Kant and Hegel", in: M. Hartmann, A. Särkelä (eds.), Naturalism and Social Philosophy: Contemporary Perspectives, London: Rowman and Littlefield, forthcoming.

"Stufe der Differenz: Zur zweiten Natur der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft nach Kant und Hegel", in Korean translation published in: Hegel-Studien 48 (2020), ed. by the Korean Hegel Society, pp. 187-212.

"'I do not cognize myself through being conscious of myself as thinking': Self-Knowledge and the Irreducibility of Self-Objectification in Kant", in: Canadian Journal of Philosophy 49 (2019), pp. 956-979.

"Die Wiederkehr des Problems in seiner Lösung. Zu Rahel Jaeggis Kritik von Lebensformen", in: Philosophisches Jahrbuch 126:1 (2019), pp. 117-132.

"Politics of Second Nature. On the Democratic Dimension of Ethical Life", in: P. Stekeler-Weithofer, B. Zabel (eds.), Philosophie der Republik, Tübingen: Mohr 2018, pp. 422-436.

"Die Kunst der zweiten Natur und die andere Natur der Kunst", in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 66:3 (2018), pp. 339-361.

"The Self-Determination of Force: Desire and Practical Self-Consciousness in Kant and Hegel", in: Internationales Jahrbuch des Deutschen Idealismus 13 (2015), pp. 179-204 [date of publication: 04|2018].

"Recht auf Rechte: Zur Naturalisierung und Politisierung subjektiver Rechte", in: Rechtsphilosophie – Zeitschrift für Grundlagen des Rechts 3:1 (2017), pp. 15-30.

"Bewusstsein des Lebens und lebendiges Selbstbewusstsein. Anmerkungen zu einem Übergang in Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes", in: A. Kern, C. Kietzmann (eds.), Selbstbewusstes Leben: Texte zu einer transformativen Theorie der menschlichen Subjektivität, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2017, pp. 353-388.

"'The Common Root of Meaning and Nonmeaning': Derrida, Foucault and the Transformation of the Transcendental Question", in: O. Custer, P. Deutscher, S. Haddad (eds.), Foucault/Derrida: Fifty Years Later, New York: Columbia University Press 2016, pp. 80-104.

"Die Kunst der zweiten Natur. Zu einem modernen Kulturbegriff nach Kant und Hegel", in: WestEnd. Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 13:1 (2016), pp. 35-55.

"Paradoxes of Autonomy: On the Dialectics of Freedom and Normativity", in: Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy 17:1 (2013), pp. 50-74.

"Life and Autonomy: Forms of Self-Determination in Kant and Hegel", in: T. Khurana (ed.), The Freedom of Life: Hegelian Perspectives, Berlin: August Verlag 2013, pp. 155-193.

Newspaper Articles

"Liberation", in: Die Welt, January 19, 2023, p. 16.

"The Coloniality of our Freedom", in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2022, p. N3.

Videos and Interviews

„Kants 300. Geburtstag mit Dr. Thomas Khurana & Dr. Zdravko Kobe“, Podiumsdiskussion im Goethe-Institut Ljubljana am 22.04.2024

"Probleme ganz neu denken“, joint interview with Karen Ng in the supplement „Neues aus Forschung und Lehre“ of the University of Potsdam, Tagesspiegel, 20. Oktober 2023, S. 10.

"The Resurrection of Nature: Marx’s Dialectical Naturalism", Vortrag auf der Tagung "The Futures of Marx“, Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, 29. Juni 2023.

"The Futures of Marx", Einführung zur Tagung "The Futures of Marx“, Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, 28. Juni 2023.

"Politics of Nature: An Introduction", Presentation at the Conference "Politics of Nature", Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy, ICI Berlin, October 20, 2022.

"Die Aufklärung der Aufklärung", Interview on the Foundation of the "Center for Post-Kantian Philosophy", Universität Potsdam, August 23, 2022.

"True Right Against Formal Right: The Body of Right and the Limits of Property", Lecture at the Conference "Hegel's Philosophy of Right: A Conference in Honor of Terry Pinkard", Johns Hopkins University, October 2021.

"Altera Natura: Das Anthropozän als ästhetisches Problem", Lecture at the XI. Congress of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ästhetik, July 13-15, 2021.

"The Comedy of Political Philosophy", Interview on the Marie Curie Project at the University of Essex, in: CORDIS Research*eu Magazine, 105 (2021) ["From Socrates to modern science: New perspectives in European philosophy"].

"Ironie des Selbstbewusstseins", contribution to "5 Minuten Hegel: Eine digitale Gratulation zu seinem 250. Geburtstag am 27. August 2020".

"Freedom’s Tendency to Get Ahead of Itself and Fall Short", Interview by Richard Marshall in: 3ammagazine, August 25, 2018.

"Leben und Politik", Panel Discussion, Night of Philosophy "Bios – Thinking Life", Athens, May 2015 (starting at minute 24).

Various downloads can be found at:

https://uni-potsdam.academia.edu/ThomasKhurana

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas_Khurana

https://philpeople.org/profiles/thomas-khurana