Michael Esfeld

Professeur ordinaire

University of Lausanne
Department of Philosophy
Quartier UNIL-Dorigny, Bâtiment Anthropole 4074
CH-1015 Lausanne

Phone: +41 (0)21 692 29 23
Fax: +41 (0)21 692 30 45
Email: Michael-Andreas.Esfeld@unil.ch

Main areas of research

• philosophy of science, in particular philosophy of physics
• philosophy of mind, in particular causation and functional reduction

Current research projects

The ontology of fundamental physics

The aim of this project is to enquire into the ontology that best fits modern physics. In the first place, the project seeks to work out the following two paradigms: a metaphysics of particles, based on Newton’s classical mechanics, and a metaphysics of fields, based on Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism and Einstein’s special and general theory of relativity. The main rersearch question then is how to account for quantum physics against this background, notably the non-locality manifested in the experiments confirming the predictions of quantum mechanics. The main topics considered in this context include holism and structural realism, in particular as applied to quantum physics, the nature of space and time (relationalism vs. substantialism, the direction of time and temporal becoming), realism about causation, the essence of physical properties (pure qualities / categorical structures vs. dispositions), and the link between properties and laws of nature (humeanism vs. dispositionalism).

PhD Thesis of Vincent Lam on space-time metaphysics
PhD Thesis of Matthias Egg on Causal explanations and unobservable entities in particle physics
PhD Thesis of Tim Raez on Structural realism in philosophy of physics and mathematics
PhD Thesis of Antonio Vassallo on The metaphysics of quantum gravity
PhD Thesis of Jakob Sprickerhof on Causal structures in quantum field theory

Recent publications

• Michael Esfeld and Vincent Lam: “Ontic structural realism as a metaphysics of objects”, in Alisa and Peter Bokulich (eds.): Scientific structuralism. Dordrecht: Springer 2011. Chapter 8. Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/5531/
  
• Mauro Dorato and Michael Esfeld: "GRW as an ontology of dispositions", in Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (2010), pp. 41–49.
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004870/
  
• "Physics and causation", Foundations of Physics 40 (2010), pp. 1597-1610.
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/4927/
  
• Michael Esfeld: "The modal nature of structures in ontic structural realism", International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 23 (2009), pp. 179-194
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/4459/
  
• Michael Esfeld: Naturphilosophie als Metaphysik der Natur. Frankfurt (Main): Suhrkamp 2008.
  Table of contents & Introduction
  Information sheet from the publisher
  
• Michael Esfeld, "Quantum entanglement and a metaphysics of relations", Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35B (2004), pp. 601-617.
  Paper available at
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13552198 and at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/1735/
  
• Michael Esfeld & Vincent Lam: "Moderate structural realism about space-time". Synthese 160 (2008), pp. 27-46.
  http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/1573-0964.

Conservative reductionism

This project starts from three premises:
1. The fundamental physical properties consist in structures
2. All properties, including the fundamental physical structures, are causal
3. Properties are modes, that is, the way objects are
After providing independent arguments for each of these premises, we show how it is possible to construct a metaphysics of science on them that includes both fundamental physics and the special sciences. We argue that the properties that the special sciences consider are identical with local physical structures and we show how the multiple realization argument against reductionism can be countered by the introduction of functional sub-types. After having applied this conception to the philosophy of biology, notably the relationship between classical and molecular biology, we currently develop it with respect to the philosophy of mind and the relationship between common sense psychology and neurobiology.

PhD Thesis of Christian Sachse on Reductionism in the philosophy of science
PhD Thesis of Patrice Soom on Psychology and neuroscience. A new reductive account
PhD Thesis of Laurent Cordonier on the Philosophy of the social sciences
PhD Thesis of Pietro Snider on Causation and the self-constitution of the conscious mind

Recent publications

• Michael Esfeld, Christian Sachse and Patrice Soom: "Marrying the merits of Nagelian reduction and functional reduction", forthcoming in Acta Analytica.
  Paper available here.
• Michael Esfeld & Christian Sachse: Kausale Strukturen. Einheit und Vielfalt in der Natur und den Naturwissenschaften, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2010, 261 pages
  Download information sheet from the publisher
  English version: Conservative reductionism. New York: Routledge 2011, 204 pages.
  http://www.routledge.com/books/search/author/michael_esfeld/
  
• Patrice Soom, Christian Sachse & Michael Esfeld, "Psycho-neural reduction through functional sub-types", in Journal of Consciousness Studies 17 (2010), pp. 7–26. Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/4644/
  
• Michael Esfeld & Christian Sachse: "Theory reduction by means of functional sub-types", International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 21 (2007).
  Download pdf file
  
• Michael Esfeld: "Mental causation and the metaphysics of causation", Erkenntnis 67 (2007), pp. 207-220
  Download pdf file
  

Graduate Programme in Philosophy of the CUSO (Universities of Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel) 

philosophie.cuso.ch/

Events organized by the Philosophy of science group in Lausanne:

• workshop "Decoherence and no-signalling: current interpretational problems of quantum theory", in cooperation with the History and Philosophy of Science Group at the University of Bern, 23-24 June 2011
   
• workshop “Multiple realization in the special sciences”, with Ken Aizawa, 11 May 2011, organized by Patrice Soom.

• workshop “Causalité et dispositions”, with Max Kistler, Jean-Maurice Monnoyer and Claudine Tiercelin, 5 September 2009
   
• workshop “Neurobiological explanations of the mind”, with Carl Craver and Harald Atmanspacher, 11 to 12 December 2008, organized by Christian Sachse and Patrice Soom
   
• workshop “Causation in biomedical sciences II” in cooperation with Bernardino Fantini, with Mauro Dorato, Peter McLaughlin and Marcel Weber among others, 31 March to 2 April 2008
   
• workshop with Michael Pauen “Functionalism and qualia”, 5 March 2008
   
• workshop “Structural realism”, with Dennis Dieks, Steven French, Claus Kiefer and Stewart Shapiro, 29 to 30 November 2007
   
• workshop “Mental causation and externalism”, with Pascal Engel, Holger Lyre, Albert Newen, Martine Nida-Rümelin, David Papineau, Markus Schrenk and Giovanni Tuzet, 5 to 7 September 2007, organized by Jens Harbecke and Georg Sparber
   
• workshop with Carl Gillet “On the Implications of Scientific Composition and Completeness”, 9 May 2007
   
• workshop “John Heil. Symposium on his ontological point of view”, 9 to 10 February 2006, with John Heil, papers published as a book by Ontos-Verlag Frankfurt (Main) (2006)
   
• workshop “Causation in biomedical sciences” in cooperation with Bernardino Fantini, with Jaegwon Kim, Alex Rosenberg, Jean Gayon and Marcel Weber among others, 17 to 19 June 2005, papers published in a special issue of Studies in History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 27 (2005)

ProDoc “Mind, normativity, self and properties” (2007-2010) and “Mind and reality” (2010-2013) sponsored by the Swiss National Foundation (SNF)

www.philosophie.ch/prodoc-romand/pr_home.php

Events organized by the Philosophy of science group in Lausanne:

• Graduate seminar “Causation and reduction”, weekly seminar Wed 15-17h in autumn 2009

European Graduate School "Philosophy of mind, reduction, neuroscience”, Lausanne 12th to 16th October 2010, in cooperation with the Philosophy departments of the universities of Bochum (Germany, Albert Newen) and Tilburg (Netherlands, Stephan Hartmann)

• Graduate School “Philosophy of mind, reduction, neuroscience”, 12th to 16th October 2010, organized by Michael Esfeld (Lausanne), Stephan Hartmann (Tilburg) and Albert Newen (Bochum)
   
• Graduate School “Philosophy of perception”, 24 to 28 March 2009, main lecturers Tim Crane and Michael Tye, workshop with Paul Coates, Katalin Farkas, Albert Newen and Gianfranco Soldati, organized by Michael Sollberger

Research projects sponsored by the Swiss National Foundation (SNF)

• “Mental causation and reductionism”, October 2004 to September 2007, with Jens Harbecke and Christian Sachse, PhD theses defended 13 February and 4 September 2007
   
• “Mental causation, functionalism and the metaphysics of causation”, December 2007 to November 2010, with Patrice Soom (PhD-student) (project within the ProDoc “Mind, normativity, self and properties”), defended 15th October 2010
   
• “Direct realism and the threat from perceptual delusions”, August 2008 to July 2011, with Michael Sollberger (PhD-student), defence of the PhD thesis scheduled for 12 November 2010
   
• “Structural realism as a philosophy of nature”, May 2009 to April 2012, with Vincent Lam (Post-Doc) (until 1 March 2010) and Tim Raez (PhD student) (since 1 March 2010)
   
• “Causal properties and laws in the philosophy of science”, October 2010 to September 2013, with Pietro Snider (PhD student) and Jakob Sprickerhof (PhD student) (project within the ProDoc “Mind and reality”)

PhD students

• Christian Sachse, “Reductionism in the philosophy of science”
  PhD thesis defended 13 February 2007
   
• Jens Harbecke, “Mental causation. Investigating the mind’s powers in a natural world”
  PhD thesis defended 4 September 2007
   
• Vincent Lam, “Space-time within general relativity: a stuctural realist understanding”
  PhD thesis defended 30 November 2007
   
• Georg Sparber, “Unorthodox Humeanism”
  PhD thesis defended 3 December 2008
   
• Michael Sollberger, “The structural nature of perception”
  PhD thesis defended 12 November 2010
   
• Patrice Soom, “From psychology to neuroscience. A new reductive account”
  PhD thesis defended 15 October 2010
   
• Matthias Egg, “Causal explanations and unobservable entities in particle physics”
   
• Tim Raez, “Structural realism in philosophy of physics and mathematics”
   
• Laurent Cordonier, “Une socionomie est-elle possible?”
  co-direction with Laurence Kaufmann (sociology, University of Lausanne)
   
• Antonio Vassallo, “The metaphysics of quantum gravity”
  SCIEX-fellowship October 2010-September 2011
  Thesis directors Tomasz Bigaj (Warsaw) and Michael Esfeld
   
• Pietro Snider, “Causation and the self-constitution of the conscious mind”
   
• Jakob Sprickerhof, "Causal structures in quantum field theory"
   
• Marion Hämmerli, "Perspectival Spatial Representations"

Books

• Indroduction à la philosophie de l'esprit. Bern: Bern Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science – Educational Materials 2011, 192 pages
  Available on http://www.amazon.com
   
• Michael Esfeld & Christian Sachse: Kausale Strukturen. Einheit und Vielfalt in der Natur und den Naturwissenschaften, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2010, 261 pages
  Download information sheed from the publisher
  English version: Conservative reductionism. New York: Routledge 2011, 204 pages.
  http://www.routledge.com/books/search/author/michael_esfeld/
   
• Naturphilosophie als Metaphysik der Natur. Frankfurt (Main): Suhrkamp 2008.
  Table of contents & Introduction
  Information sheet from the publisher
   
• La philosophie des sciences. Une introduction. Lausanne : Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, automne 2006. Deuxième édition révisée 2009.
  Download covering
  Site de l'éditeur (PPUR)
   
• John Heil. Symposium on his ontological point of view. Frankfurt (Main): Ontos-Verlag 2006.
  Download Covering
  Download Table of Contents & Introduction
  
• Philosophie des Geistes. Eine Einführung. Bern: Bern Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science - Educational Materials 8, 2005, 212 pages.
  Download Table of contents
   
• La philosophie de l'esprit. De la relation entre l'esprit et la nature. Paris: Armand Colin 2005
  Download Table of contents
  Download covering
   
• Einführung in die Naturphilosophie. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2002.
  Second edition, entirely revised 2011.
  http://www.wbg-wissenverbindet.de/WBGShop/php/Proxy.php?purl=/wbg/products/search/show,15270,esfeld.html#15270
   
• Holism in Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Physics. Dordrecht: Kluwer 2001 (Synthese Library Volume 298) (Habilitation Thesis).
  Download PDF file

• German version: Holismus in der Philosophie des Geistes und der Philosophie der Physik, Frankfurt (Main): Suhrkamp 2002 (stw 1572)
  Download PDF file
   
• Mechanismus und Subjektivität in der Philosophie von Thomas Hobbes. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog 1995 (Quaestiones 9).
  Download PDF file

Papers

Forthcoming

• Michael Esfeld, Christian Sachse and Patrice Soom: "Marrying the merits of Nagelian reduction and functional reduction", forthcoming in Acta Analytica.
  Paper available at
  http://www.springerlink.com/content/jl01706131480465/
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/8742/
  

2011

• “Brandoms Trilemma”, in Christian Barth and Holger Sturm (eds.):
  Robert Brandoms expressive Vernunft. Historische und systematische Untersuchungen, Paderborn: Mentis 2011, pp.209–229.
  Download pdf file
  
   
• "Le réalisme scientifique et la métaphysique des sciences", in Anouk Barberousse, Denis Bonnay and Mikaël Cozic (eds.): Précis de philosophie des sciences, Paris: Vuibert 2011, pp. 141-170.
  Download pdf file
   
• “Funktion” in Armin G. Wildfeuer and Petra Kolmer (eds.): Neues Handbuch philosophischer Grundbegriffe, Freiburg (Breisgau): Alber 2011, pp. 842–854.
  Download pdf file
   
• “Das Wesen der Natur”, Spektrum der Wissenschaft June 2011, pp. 54–58.
   
• “Science and metaphysics: the case of quantum physics”, in Anne Reboul (ed.): Philosophical papers dedicated to Kevin Mulligan on the occasion of his 60th birthday 23 June 2011.
  Paper available at
  http://www.philosophie.ch/kevin/festschrift/
   
• “Wie bewegt der Geist den Körper? Das Problem der mentalen Verursachung”, in Wolfgang Lienemann (ed.): Neuroscience. Bulletin der Vereinigung der Schweizerischen Hochschuldozierenden 37.2 (August 2011), pp. 30–37.
  Download pdf file
   
• "Causal properties and conservative reduction", Philosophia naturalis 47-48 (2010-11), pp. 9-31
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/5558/
   
• “Wozu Dispositionen?”, in Carl Friedrich Gethmann (ed.): Lebenswelt und Wissenschaft. Deutsches Jahrbuch Philosophie 2. Hamburg: Meiner 2011, pp. 433–439.
  Download pdf file
   
• Michael Esfeld and Vincent Lam: “Ontic structural realism as a metaphysics of objects”, in Alisa and Peter Bokulich (eds.): Scientific structuralism. Dordrecht: Springer 2011. Chapter 8.
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/5531/
   
• Michael Esfeld and Christian Sachse: “Identität statt Emergenz. Plädoyer für einen konservativen Reduktionismus”, in Jens Greve and Annette Schnabel (eds.): Emergenz. Zur Analyse und Erklärung komplexer Strukturen. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2011, pp. 84–110.
  Download pdf file

2010 

• “Les fondements de la causalité”, in Gérard Lambert and Marc Silberstein (eds.): Epistémologie de la médecine et de la santé. Matière première 1/2010. Paris: Editions Matériologiques 2010, pp. 199–222.
  http://www.materiologiques.com/spip.php?article40
   
• “Causal overdetermination for Humeans?”, Metaphysica 11 (2010), pp. 99–104.
  Download pdf file
   
• “Physics and causation”, Foundations of Physics 40 (2010), pp. 1597-1610. Special issue in honour of the 80th birthday of Peter Mittelstaedt.
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/4927/
   
• Mauro Dorato and Michael Esfeld: “GRW as an ontology of dispositions”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 41 (2010), pp. 41–49.
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004870/
   
• Patrice Soom, Christian Sachse and Michael Esfeld: “Psycho-neural reduction through functional sub-types”, Journal of Consciousness Studies 17 (2010), pp. 7–26.
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004644/
   
• "Humean metaphysics versus a metaphysics of powers", in Gerhard Ernst and Andreas Hüttemann (eds.): Time, chance and reduction. Philosophical aspects of statistical mechanics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapter 7 (2010), pp. 119–135.
  Download pdf file
   
• Michael Esfeld & Vincent Lam: "Holism and structural realism", in Robrecht Vanderbeeken and Bart D’Hooghe
  (eds.): Worldviews, science and us. Studies of analytical metaphysics. A selection of topics from a methodological perspective. Singapore: World Scientific 2010, pp. 10–31.
  Download pdf file
   
• "Normen und mentale Eigenschaften in der physikalischen Welt. Diskussionsbeitrag zu Peter Stemmer, Normativität.
  Eine ontologische Untersuchung. Berlin: de Gruyter 2008", Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 58 (2010), pp. 145–148.
  Download pdf file
   
• “Comment on David Papineau, Can any sciences be special?” in: Graham and Cynthia MacDonald (eds.): Emergence in mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010, pp.198–204.
  Download pdf file

2009

• “Hypothetical metaphysics of nature”, in Michael Heidelberger and Gregor Schiemann (eds.): The significance of the hypothetical in the natural sciences. Berlin: de Gruyter 2009, pp. 341–364.
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004556/
   
• Michael Esfeld and Vincent Lam: “Structures as the objects of fundamental physics”, in Uljana Feest, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and Günter Abel (eds.): Epistemic objects, Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science 2009, Preprint 374, pp. 3–16.
  Download pdf file
   
• “Inferentialism and the normativity trilemma”, in Damiano Canale and Giovanni Tuzet (eds.): The rules of inference. Inferentialism in law and philosophy. Milano: Egea 2009, pp. 13–28.
  Download pdf file
   
• “La théorie causale des propriétés”, Klesis 13 (2009), pp. 56–68.
  Paper available at
  http://www.revue-klesis.org/19.html
   
• "Descartes, Leibniz und das Problem der mentalen Verursachung", in Jean Ferrari, Pierre Guenancia, Margit Ruffing, Robert Theis and Matthias Vollet (eds.): Descartes und Deutschland / Descartes et Allemagne, Hildesheim: Olms 2009, pp. 99–109.
  Download PDF File
   
• Michael Esfeld & Jens Harbecke, Article “Cauality” in Marc D. Binder, Nobutaka Hirokawa and Uwe Windhorst (eds.): Encyclopedia of neuroscience, Berlin: Springer 2009, pp. 583-587.
   
• Article “Explanation (deductive-nomological, mereological, reductive)” in Marc D. Binder, Nobutaka Hirokawa and Uwe Windhorst (eds.): Encyclopedia of neuroscience, Berlin: Springer 2009, pp. 1495-1498.
   
• "The modal nature of structures in ontic structural realism", International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 23 (2009), pp. 179-194
  Paper available at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004459/
   
• Michael Herzog & Michael Esfeld: "How the mind constitutes itself through perceptual learning", Learning & Perception 1 (2009), pp. 147-154.
  Paper available at
  http://www.akademiai.com/content/121430/?sortorder=asc&v=expanded

2008

• "Die Metaphysik dispositionaler Eigenschaften", Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 62 (2008), pp. 323-342.
  Download pdf file
   
• "Die philosophische Herausforderung der Naturwissenschaften", issue 10 of the series Quo vadis universitas? Kritische Beiträge zur Idee und Zukunft der Universität, ed. Hans-Ulrich Rüegger, University of Zurich, October 2008
  http://www.fnf.uzh.ch/quovadis.html
   
• "Cartwright on wholism", in Stephan Hartmann, Carl Hoefer and Luc Bovens (eds.): Nancy Cartwright's philosophy of science, London: Routledge 2008, pp. 324-336. With a commentary by Nancy Cartwright pp. 337-338.
  Download pdf file
   
• Michael Esfeld & Vincent Lam: "Moderate structural realism about space-time". Synthese 160 (2008), pp. 27-46.
  http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/1573-0964
   
• Michael Esfeld & Michael Sollberger "Recent German books in the philosophy of mind", Dialectica 62 (1) (2008), p. 128-135.
  Download pdf file
   
• "Mentale Verursachung und die neue Reduktionismus-Debatte in der Philosophie des Geistes", in Patrick Spät (ed.): Zur Zukunft der Philosophie des Geistes, Paderborn: Mentis 2008, pp. 25-40.
  Download pdf file

2007

• "La philosophie comme métaphysique des sciences", Studia Philosophica 66 (2007), pp. 61-76
  Download pdf file
  
  
• "Mental causation and the metaphysics of causation", Erkenntnis 67 (2007), pp. 207-220
  Download pdf file
  
  
• Michael Herzog, Michael Esfeld & Wulfram Gerstner: "Consciousness and the small network argument", Neural Networks 20 (2007), pp. 1054-1056.
  Download pdf file
  
  
• Michael Esfeld & Christian Sachse: "Theory reduction by means of functional sub-types", International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 21 (2007), p. 1-17.
  Download pdf file
  
  
• "Metaphysics of science between metaphysics and science", Grazer Philosophische Studien 74 (2007), pp. 199-213 (special issue Philosophical knowledge - its possibility and scope, Eds. Christian Beyer and Alex Burri)
  Download pdf file
  
  
• Review of "Bernard d'Espagnat, On physics and philosophy, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2006", Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 38B (2007), pp. 989-992
  Download pdf file
  
  
• "Kausalität", in Andreas Bartels & Manfred Stöckler (eds.): Wissenschaftstheorie. Ein Studienbuch, Paderborn: Mentis 2007, pp. 89-107.
  Download pdf file

2006

• "The impact of science on metaphysics and its limits", Abstracta 2 (2006), pp. 86-101.
  Paper available at http://www.abstracta.pro.br/editions.asp
  


• "Le sphinx quantique. Le problème de la mesure", Sciences et avenir hors série. Le paradoxe du chat de Schrödinger, No. 148 October/November 2006, pp. 30-34.
  Download PDF file
  


• "La théorie de Bohm", Sciences et avenir hors série. Le paradoxe du chat de Schrödinger, No. 148 October/November 2006, p. 71.
  Download PDF file
  


• "Scientific realism and the history of science", in G. Auletta (ed.): The controversial relationships between science and philosophy: a critical assessment. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2006, pp. 251-275.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• Michael Esfeld & Michael Sollberger: "Repräsentationaler oder direkter Realismus? Stellungnahme", Information Philosophie 3/2006, pp. 32-43.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Der neue Reduktionismus". In: G. Abel (ed.): Kreativität. XX. Deutscher Kongress für Philosophie. Kolloquiumsbeiträge. Hamburg: Meiner. Pp. 951-965.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "From being ontologically serious to serious ontology", in Michael Esfeld (ed.): John Heil. Symposium on his ontological point of view, Frankfurt (Main): Ontos-Verlag 2006, pp. 191-206.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Popper on irreversibility and the arrow of time", in Ian Jarvie, Karl Milford and David Miller (eds.): Karl Popper: A centenary assessment, Aldershot: Ashgate 2006, Chapter 45, pp. 57-70.
  Download PDF File

2005

• "The causal homogeneity of biological kinds", History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 27 (2005), December issue, pp. 421-43.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• with Michael Herzog: "Wenn der Geist Kopf steht - Philosophie. Leib-Seele-Problem", Gehirn & Geist 11 / 2005, pp. 56-60
  
  
• "Mental causation and mental properties", Dialectica 59 (2005), pp. 5-18.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Le pragmatisme en sémantique et en épistémologie contemporaines", Philosophia Scientiae 9 (2005), pp. 31-47
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Normativität der Bedeutung und normative Wissenschaftsphilosophie", in Bernward Gesang (ed.): Normative oder deskriptive Wissenschaftstheorie?, Frankfurt (Main): Ontos-Verlag 2005, pp. 205-223.
  Download PDF File

2004 

• "Quantum entanglement and a metaphysics of relations", Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 35B, pp. 601-617.
  Paper available at
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13552198 and at
  http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu, ID 1735.
  
  
• "Philosophie als Beruf - und als Leidenschaft", in Helge Klausener (ed.): Berufe für Philosophen, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
  Buchgesellschaft October 2004, pp. 31-41.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Von einer pragmatischen Theorie der Bedeutung zur Philosophie des Geistes", in André Fuhrmann and Erik J. Olsson (eds.): Pragmatisch denken. Frankfurt (Main): Ontos-Verlag 2004, pp. 147-168.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "L'anti-cartésianisme dans la théorie de la connaissance contemporaine", in Michael Esfeld and Jean-Marc Tétaz (eds.) : Généalogie de la pensée moderne. Volume d'hommage à Ingeborg Schüßler / Genealogie des neuzeitlichen Denkens. Festschrift für Ingeborg Schüßler, Frankfurt (Main): Ontos-Verlag 2004, pp. 381-393.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Wie direkt soll ein Realismus sein?", in Christoph Halbig and Christian Suhm (eds.): Was ist wirklich? Neuere Beiträge zu Realismusdebatten in der Philosophie. Frankfurt (Main): Ontos-Verlag 2004, pp. 81-96.
  Download PDF File

2003

• "Philosophical holism" (10000 words), in Encyclopedia of life support system, section Encyclopedia of social sciences and humanities, Unity of knowledge, Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn (ed.), Oxford: EOLSS Publishers 2003
  http://www.eolss.net
  
  
• with Marcel Weber: "Holism in the sciences" (10000 words), in Encyclopedia of life support system, section Encyclopedia of social sciences and humanities, Unity of knowledge, Gertrude Hirsch Hadorn (ed.), Oxford: EOLSS Publishers 2003, http://www.eolss.net.
  http://www.eolss.net
  
  
• "Do Relations Require Underlying Intrinsic Properties? A Physical Argument for a Metaphysics of Relations", Metaphysica. International Journal for Ontology & Metaphysics, 4 (2003), pp. 5-25.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• L'argument sémantique pour la dépendance corporelle de la pensée", Studia Philosophica 62 (2003): Der Körper in der Philosophie / Le corps dans la philosophie, pp. 119-131.
  Download PDF File
  

• "Holismus und Atomismus in den Geistes- und Naturwissenschaften. Eine Skizze", in Alexander Bergs and Soelve I. Curdts (eds.): Holismus und Individualismus in den Wissenschaften. Frankfurt (Main): Lang 2003, pp. 7-21.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "What are Social Practices?", Indaga. Revista internacional de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas 1 (2003), pp. 19-43.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Freiheit im Denken", in Sibille Mischer, Michael Quante and Christian Suhm (eds.): Auf Freigang. Metaphysische und ethische Annäherungen an die menschliche Freiheit, Münster: Lit 2003, pp. 127-142.
  Download PDF File
  
  
• "Regelfolgen zwanzig Jahre nach Kripkes Wittgenstein", Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 57 (2003), pp. 128-138.
  Download PDF File

2002

• Review of "Trish Glazebrook, Heidegger's Philosophy of Science. New York: Fordham University Press 2000", International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 16 (2002), pp. 300-302.
  
  
• "Grenzen der Bedeutungsexplikation. Argumente für eine pragmatische Theorie der Bedeutung", in Wolfram Hogrebe (ed.): Grenzen und Grenzüberschreitungen. XIX. Deutscher Kongreß für Philosophie 23. bis 27. September 2002 in Bonn. Sektionsbeiträge, Bonn: Sinclair Press, 2002, pp. 1041-1050.
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• "Was besagt semantischer Holismus? Zwei Möglichkeiten der Konzeptualisierung", in Georg W. Bertram and Jasper Liptow (eds.): Holismus in der Philosophie. Ein zentrales Motiv der Gegenwartsphilosophie, Weilerswist: Velbrück 2002, pp. 41-58.
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• "Quantentheorie: Herausforderung an die Philosophie!", in Jürgen Audretsch (ed.): Verschränkte Welt. Faszination der Quanten, Berlin: Wiley-VCH 2002, pp. 197-217.
  
  
• "The Purpose of a Normative Account of the Content of our Beliefs", in Wolfram Hinzen and Hans Rott (eds.): Belief and Meaning: Essays at the Interface, Frankfurt (Main): Hänsel-Hohenhausen 2002, pp. 183-198.
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• "Externalism about Content: Its Social and Its Physical Roots", Filosoficky Casopis 50 (2002), pp. 387-400 (Special issue of the Philosophical Journal of the Czech Academy on externalism, Tomás Marvan, David Mik eds.).
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• Brief review of "Peter Bieri, Das Handwerk der Freiheit. Über die Entdeckung des eigenen Willens. München: Hanser 2001", Gehirn und Geist 1 (2002), issue 2, p. 95.
  
  
• Brief review of "Michael Pauen and Achim Stephan (eds.): Phänomenales Bewußtsein - Rückkehr zur Identitätstheorie? Paderborn: Mentis 2002", Gehirn und Geist 1 (2002), issue 3, p. 97.

2001

• "Atomism and Holism (Philosophical Aspects)" in Paul B. Baltes and Neil J. Smelser (eds.): International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Amsterdam: Elsevier 2001, Volume 2, pp.859-864.
  
  
• "What can Heidegger's Being and Time Tell Today's Analytic Philosophy?, Philosophical Explorations 4 (2001), pp. 46-62.
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• "Lewis' Causation and Quantum Correlations", in Wolfgang Spohn, Marion Ledwig and Michael Esfeld (eds.): Current Issues in Causation, Paderborn: Mentis 2001, pp. 175-189.
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• "How a Social Theory of Meaning can be connected with Realism", Facta Philosophica 3 (2001), pp. 111-131.
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• "Review of Rae Langton, Kantian Humility. Our Ignorance of Things in Themselves, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998", Erkenntnis 54 (2001), pp. 399-403.
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• "Review of Max Kistler, Causalité et lois de la nature, Paris: Vrin 1999", Dialectica 55 (2001), pp. 181-184.
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• "Der Pragmatismus in der Gegenwartsphilosophie", Information Philosophie 3/2001, August 2001, pp. 24-31.
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• "Gonseth and Quine", Dialectica 55 (2001), pp. 199-219.
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• "Social Externalism and Physical Externalism about Content", in Ansgar Beckermann and Christian Nimtz (eds.): Proceedings of the fourth Congress of the Gesellschaft für analytische Philosophie, Paderborn: Mentis 2001, pp. 259-267, electronic publication.
  http://www.gap-im-netz.de/gap4Konf/Proceedings4/Proc.htm
  
  
• "La normativité sociale du contenu conceptuel", Cahiers de Philosophie de l'Université de Caen 37 (2001) (La normativité), pp. 215-232, publication on CD-rom.
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2000

• "Quine's Holism and Quantum Holism", Epistemologia 23 (2000), pp. 51-75.
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• "Das Regelfolgen-Argument für die Komplementarität naturwissenschaftlichen und hermeneutischen Wissens", prima philosophia 13 (2000), pp. 43-52.
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• Review of "Bernd Ludwig, Die Wiederentdeckung des Epikureischen Naturrechts. Zu Hobbes' philosophischer Entwicklung von De Cive zum Leviathan im Pariser Exil 1640-1651, Frankfurt (Main): Klostermann 1998", Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 54 (2000), pp. 128-132.
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• "Is Quantum Indeterminism Relevant to Free Will?", Philosophia Naturalis 37 (2000), pp. 177-187.
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• with Martin Scheringer and Jochen Jaeger: "Transdisciplinarity and Holism - How are Different Disciplines Connected in Environmental Research?", in Rudolf Häberli, Roland W. Scholz, Alain Bill and Myrtha Welti (eds.): Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem-Solving among Science, Technology and Society. Proceedings of the International Transdisciplinarity 2000 Conference, Workbook I: Dialogue Sessions and Idea Market, Zurich: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 2000, pp. 35-37.
  
  
• "Ein Argument für sozialen Holismus und Überzeugungs-Holismus", Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 54 (2000), pp. 387-407.
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• "Aristotle's Direct Realism in de Anima", The Review of Metaphysics 54 (2000), pp. 321-336.
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1999

• "Quantum Holism and the Philosophy of Mind", Journal of Consciousness Studies 6 (1999), pp. 23-38.
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• "Holism in Cartesianism and in Today's Philosophy of Physics", Journal for General Philosophy of Science 30 (1999), pp. 17-36.
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• "Der Holismus der Quantenphysik: seine Bedeutung und seine Grenzen", Philosophia Naturalis 36 (1999), pp. 157-185.
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• "Wigner's View of Physical Reality. Essay review of Jagdish Mehra (ed.): The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner. Part B. Historical, Philosophical, and Socio-Political Papers. Volume VI: Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses", Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 30B (1999), pp. 145-154.
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• "Was es heißt, Überzeugungen zu haben. Argumente für den semantischen Holismus", in Winfried Löffler / Edmund Runggaldier (eds.): Akten des V. Kongresses der österreichischen Gesellschaft für Philosophie, Teil 1, Wien: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky 1999, pp. 350-354.
  
  
• "Rule-Following and the Ontology of the Mind", in Uwe Meixner and Peter Simons (eds.): Metaphysics in the Post-Metaphysical Age. Papers of the 22nd International Wittgenstein Symposium, Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, Vol. VII (1), Kirchberg: Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society 1999, pp. 191-196.
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• Review of "Robert B. Brandom, Making It Explicit. Reasoning, Representing, and Discursive Commitment, Cambridge (Massachusetts): Harvard University Press 1994", Erkenntnis 51 (1999), pp. 333-346.
  Link : http://www.kluweronline.com/issn/0165-0106
  
  
• "Physicalism and Ontological Holism", Metaphilosophy 30 (1999), pp. 319-337.
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1998

• "Holism and Analytic Philosophy", Mind 107 (1998), pp. 365-380. paper available at http://www.oup.co.uk/mind/hdb/Volume_107/Issue_426/
  
  
• "Holismus und Verbindungen zwischen der Philosophie des Geistes und der Philosophie der Physik", Conceptus 31 (1998), issue no. 79, pp. 153-174.
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• "Komplementarität von Rationalitätstypen? Apel und Bohr", prima philosophia 11 (1998), pp. 283-292.
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• "Outils analytiques pour une conception générale du holisme", in Pascal Engel (ed.): Philosophie Analytique. Cahiers de l'Université de Caen 31-32 (1997/98), Caen: Presses Universitaires de Caen, S. 37-46.
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1997

• "Feldmetaphysik und Philosophie der Physik", in: Marcus Willaschek (ed.): Feld - Zeit - Kritik. Die feldtheoretische Transzendentalphilosophie von Peter Rohs in der Diskussion, Münster: Lit 1997, pp. 63-81.

1996

• "Spinoza et le holisme contemporain", in: La nature. Thèmes philosophiques. Thèmes d'actualité. Actes du XXVe Congrès de l'Association des Sociétés de philosophie de langue française Lausanne 25-28 août 1994, Cahiers de la Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie 18 (1996), pp. 200-204.
  
  
• "Cartesianismus", "Holismus", "Komplementarität", "Subjektivität", "Substanz", "Transzendentalphilosophie", and ten further articles in Metzlers Philosophie-Lexikon, eds. Franz-Peter Burckhard and Peter Prechtl, Stuttgart: Metzler 1996.
  
  
• "Review of Axel Wüstehube (ed.): Pragmatische Rationalitätstheorien, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 1995", Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 50 (1996), pp. 515-519.

1995

• "Ontischer Holismus versus methodischer Reduktionismus. Ein Widerspruch in der Naturphilosophie von Descartes und Spinoza", Philosophia Naturalis 32 (1995), pp. 71-99.
  

 
1994

• "Neue Hobbes-Literatur", Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung 48 (1994), pp. 270-283.
  

 
1993

• "Mechanismus und Subjektivität. Hobbes' Realitätskonzeption und die Problematik des menschlichen Selbstverständnisses in der modernen Welt", in: Allgemeine Gesellschaft für Philosophie in Deutschland (ed.): Neue Realitäten - Herausforderung der Philosophie. XVI. Deutscher Kongreß für Philosophie, Sektionsbeiträge I, Berlin: Verlag der Technischen Universität Berlin 1993, pp. 495-502.