Books
In Press…
Two book drafts are almost finished und should be published soon. The first is a German introduction to Theories of Seeing: An Introduction (Theorien des Sehens zur Einführung) together with Eva Schürmann (under contract with Junius for 2024). The second, with Cain Todd, is under contract with Bloomsbury and will be on Aesthetics and Emotions (to be published 2025)
Edited Books
In recent years I have been focusing on research papers both in philosophy as well as film studies, urban and architectural studies, and empirical aesthetics as well as on the two monographs mentioned above. Before, I have also published edited books as well as a special issue of Art and Perception. As a young career philosopher this was an exciting opportunity to engage with philosophers and other researchers I respected and wanted to work with.
The introduction to the German book Philosophy of Embodiment (w/ Rebekka Hufendiek and Markus Wild) was an interesting challenge, because we wanted to provide a fair introduction of 4E (embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive) cognition to the German-speaking community and especially students. It also contained central parts of my dissertation on the topic.
The volume Feelings of Being Alive focuses on a neglected class of affective states: existential feelings, yet it also explores topics of moods, atmospheres as well as full-blown emotions. I developed a theory of the living and the feeling body therein. This influenced my work on Your Emotional City! in the Research Platform Neurourbanism as well as the theory of Aesthetic Emotions that I developed later with Jesse Prinz.
The Volume on Synaesthesia and Kinaesthetics focused on a theory of the senses as embedded in a system and related to the moving body. I pick up some of those themes in the monograph Theories of Seeing: An Introduction (Theorien des Sehens zur Einführung, w/ Eva Schürmann), yet most notable I started a reflection on the central notion on habits and the relation to a habitat.
“Philosophy of Embodiment.” Edited book; in German (original edition: 2013, now in 3rd edition).
When it comes to "cognition," most think of the brain, computer models, or information processing. However, in the real world, we encounter beings with bodies that are integrated into and active within their environment. Cognition does not take place in the head, but in the world. This is the core idea of the philosophy of embodiment. Turning to the body and environment represents one of the most significant reorientations in modern cognitive science and philosophy, shaping our understanding of science and culture. This volume collects foundational texts on this topic in German for the first time and is accompanied by a hundert page introduction into the field.
“Feelings of Being Alive.” Edited Book with an Introduction and Original Contribution (2012)
The question of what characterizes feelings of being alive is a puzzling and controversial one. Are we dealing with a unique affective phenomenon or can it be integrated into existing classifications of emotions and moods? What might be the natural basis for such feelings? What could be considered their specifically human dimension? These issues are addressed by researchers from various disciplines, including philosophy of mind and emotions, psychology, and history of art. This volume contains original papers on the topic of feelings of being alive by Fiorella Battaglia, Eva-Maria Engelen, Joerg Fingerhut, Thomas Fuchs, Alice Holzhey-Kunz, Matthias Jung, Tanja Klemm, Riccardo Manzotti, Sabine Marienberg, Matthew Ratcliffe, Arbogast Schmitt, Jan Slaby, and Achim Stephan.
“Habitus in Habitat: Synaesthesia and Kinaesthetics.” Edited book with an Introduction and Original Contribution (2011)
To understand how the sense influence the development of our habitus it is important to focus on unifying processes in sensing. This approach allows us to include phenomena that elude a rather narrow view that focuses on each of the five discrete senses in isolation. One of the central questions addressed in this volume is whether there is something like a sensual habitus, and if there is, how it can be defined. This is especially done by exploring the formation and habituation of the senses in and by a culturally shaped habitat. Two key concepts, Synaesthesia and Kinaesthetics, are addressed as essential components for an understanding of the interface of habitat and the rich and multisensory experience of a perceiving subject.