Employment (current)

2004-                Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Leeds.

Employment (previous)

2001-2004          Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. – Member of the Graduate Group of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania (from 2002)

2000/01             Visiting Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, Department of Philosophy  

1999                 Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University, New York, Department of Philosophy (Fall)

1998/99             Temporary Lecturer at Otto-von-Guericke-Universität, Magdeburg, Germany, Department of Philosophy

Education

Study of Philosophy, Art History and German Literature at the Eberhard-Karls-University, Tübingen, the Free University Berlin, and Harvard Unversity, Cambridge MA.

“Zwischenprüfung” (undergraduate examination; German equivalent of the B.A.) in Philosophy, Art History, and German Literature: Free University Berlin.

M.A. in Philosophy and German Literature: Free University Berlin. Thesis on ‘Kant's Notion of Autonomy’ ["Kants Autonomiebegriff"].

Ph.D. in Philosophy: Free University Berlin. Supervisors: Ernst Tugendhat and R. Jay Wallace.

Areas of Specialization

Ethics, Metaethics, Theories of Practical Reason, Value Theory.

Areas of Competence

Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law, Theories of Emotions, Applied Ethics.

Awards and Fellowship 

2008/9               Center for Ethics, Harvard University, Faculty Fellow 

2007                 British Academy Overseas Conference Grant (SPAWN, Syracuse)

2007                 Leeds Humanities Research Institute, Overseas Conference Grant (Pacific APA) 

2005                 Research leave (autumn), University of Leeds

2003-04             Faculty Fellowship, The Center of Ethics and Public Affairs of the Murphy Institute at Tulane University, New Orleans 

2000                 Visiting Fellowship (Fall), Center for Law and Philosophy, Columbia Law School, New York

2000                 Visiting Fellowship (Spring & Summer term), Balliol College, Oxford

1992-93             Grant for Study Abroad (Harvard), Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

1991-92 & 

1993-94             Doctoral funding, Studienstiftung des  deutschen Volkes

1991                 Doctoral funding, Senate of Berlin (Jan.-June; then declined in favor of Studienstiftung funding) 

Selected Publications

Gründe und Motive. Über Humesche Theorien praktischer Vernunft. mentis Verlag Paderborn 2001, 260 pages. – Review by Ralf Stoecker in Grazer Philosophische Studien 65 (2002), 247-250.

“Reasons for Actions and Desires” in Philosophical Studies 121: 43-63, 2004.

“Explaining Reasons: Where Does the Buck Stop?” in JESP 1:3, March 2006.

"Raz on Values and Reasons" in Pettit, Scheffler, Smith, Wallace (eds.), Reason and Value. Themes from the Moral Philosophy of Joseph Raz, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004, 129-52.

"Sind Wünsche Handlungsgründe?" In Analyse und Kritik Vol. 21, 1999, 1-24.

"Haben meine Gründe etwas mit mir zu tun? Bernard Williams' Erwiderung auf John McDowell". In J. Nida-Rümelin (ed.), Analyomen 3, 606-614. Walter deGruyter, Berlin 1999.

"Zum Begriff der moralischen Motivation" in G. Meggle (ed.) Analyomen 2, Perspectives in Analytical Philosophy, 243-250. Walter deGruyter, Berlin 1997.

Entry “Internalism and Externalism in Ethics” in Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2nd edition, New York: Macmillan 2005.

Entry “Moralische Motivation” in S. Gosepath, W. Hinsch, B. Roessler (edd.), Handbuch der Politischen Philosophie und Sozialphilosophie, de Gruyter: Berlin and New York (forthcoming). 

Professional service

  • Equality and Diversity Committee, Departmental Representative
  • Disabilities Officer
  • Library Committee Representative
  • Study Abroad Coordinator for Philosophy 
  • Financial Liason Officer
  • Staff Development Committee
  • Standing Committee 
  • Director of the Centre for Ethics and Metaethics (CEM) 
  • British Society for Ethical Theory (BSET) Officer (since 2005) 
 
  • Refereed for Philosophical Studies, American Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Quarterly, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Dialectica, Philosophical Explorations, Oxford University Press, University of California Press.

Workshops and conferences organized

Conference on Practical Reasons at the Humboldt University Berlin, January 2 - 4, 1998 with financial support from the "Studienstiftung". (Co-organized with Kirsten Endres) Twelve presentations by international scholars, including Rüdiger Bittner, Joseph Raz, Michael Smith, and Jay Wallace.  

Conference on Practical Reasons at the Humboldt University Berlin, April 9 - 11, 1999 with financial support from the "Studienstiftung".  (Co-organized with Kirsten Endres) 

One-day workshop on The Metaphysics of Value, Leeds University, 14 May 2005. Papers by Jay Wallace, Ralph Wedgwood, James Lenman, and me. (Co-organized with Andy McGonigal) 

One-day workshop on Practical Reasons, Leeds University, May 6, 2006. Papers by Niko Kolodny, Joseph Raz, and Seiriol Morgan.

One-day internal Ethics Workshop, June 9, 2007, Leeds Philosophy Department.

One-day Metaethics Workshop, November 24, 2007, Leeds Philosophy Department. Papers by Wlodek Rabinowicz, Nadeem Hussain, and Kent Hurtig. (Co-organized with Gerald Lang) 

One-day workshop on Values and Reasons, 17th May 2008, Leeds, Centre for Ethics and Metaethics (CEM). (Co-organized with Gerald Lang)

Forthcoming: Conference on Themes from the Ethics of Bernard Williams, 30 June - 2 July 2009, Leeds, Centre for Ethics and Metaethics (CEM). Speakers: S. Blackburn, J. Broome, S. Broadie, P. Pettit, J. Raz, S. Scheffler, M. Smith, J. Wallace, S. Wolf; Commentators: R. Crisp, D. Enoch, A. Hills, B. Hooker, G. Lang, J. Lenman, E. Mason, M. Ridge, R. Wedgwood. (Co-organized with Gerald Lang)