Alix Cohen
Head of Philosophy
- Philosophy
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
Address
- Street
-
Room 4.13, Dugald Stewart Building
- City
- 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AD
Availability
Office hours: by appointment only.
Background
Before joining the University of Edinburgh as Chancellor’s Fellow in January 2014, Alix taught at the universities of York and Leeds, having previously held a Junior Research Fellowship at Newnham College, Cambridge.
Current roles at Edinburgh include Head of Philosophy.
Book
Kant on the Human Sciences: Biology, Anthropology and History (Palgrave, 2009)
Edited volumes
- Thinking about the Emotions: A Philosophical History (with Bob Stern, OUP, 2017).
- Kant on Emotions and Value (Palgrave, 2014)
- Critical Guide to Kant’s Lectures on Anthropology (CUP, 2014)
- ‘Kantian Philosophy and the Human Sciences’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 39(4), 2008.
Recent papers
- ‘A Kantian Account of Emotions as Feelings’, Mind, vol. 129, pp. 429–460, 2020.
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‘Kant on Evolution: A Re-Evaluation’, Kant on Animals, John Callanan and Lucy Allais (Eds.), (OUP, 2020), pp. 124-34.
- ‘Kant on Moral Feelings, Moral Desires and the Cultivation of Virtue’, International Yearbook of German Idealism, Begehren / Desire, Dina Emundts and Sally Sedgwick (Eds.), pp. 3–18, 2018.
- ‘Kant on Science and Normativity’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A, vol. 71, pp. 6-12, 2018.
- ‘Rational Feelings’, Kant and the Faculty of Feeling, Diane Williamson and Kelly Sorensen (Eds.) (CUP, 2017), pp. 9-24.
- ‘Kant on Beauty and Cognition: The Aesthetic Dimension of Cognition’, Thinking about Science and Reflecting on Art: Bringing Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Science Together, Steven French and Otavio Bueno (Eds.), (Routledge, 2017), pp. 140-154.
- ‘Kant on Emotions, Feelings and Affectivity’, The Palgrave Kant Handbook, Matthew Altman (Ed.) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), pp. 665-681.
- ‘Kant on the Moral Cultivation of Feelings’, Alix Cohen and Bob Stern (Eds.), Thinking about the Emotions: A Philosophical History (OUP, 2017), pp. 172-183.
- ‘The Natural and the Pragmatic in Kant’s Anthropology: The Case of Temperaments’, Tamas Demeter (Ed.), Early Science and Medicine, 2017, vol. 22, pp. 1-18.
- ‘The Role of Feelings in Kant’s Account of Moral Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, vol. 50, Issue 4, November 2016, pp. 511–523.
Selected past papers
- ‘The Anthropology of Cognition and its Pragmatic Implications’, Kant’s Lectures on Anthropology: A Critical Guide (CUP, 2014), pp. 76-93.
- ‘Kant on the Ethics of Belief’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. CXIV, Part 3, pp. 317-333, 2014.
- ‘Kant on Doxastic Voluntarism and its Implications for the Ethics of Belief’, Kant Yearbook, vol. 5, ‘Kant and Contemporary Theory of Knowledge’, pp. 33-50, 2013.
- ‘Kant on the Possibility of Ugliness’, British Journal of Aesthetics, 53(2), pp. 199-209, 2013.
- ‘Kant’s ‘curious catalogue of human frailties’: The Great Portrait of Nature’, Critical Guide to Kant’s Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime, S. Shell & R. Velkley (Eds.) (CUP), 2012, pp. 144-62.
- ‘Sociabilité, art de la fête et vertu chez Rousseau et Kant’, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-2012). Matériaux pour un renouveau critique, C. Van Staen (Ed.) (Bruxelles: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles), 2012, pp. 245-55.
- ‘Enabling the Realization of Humanity: The Anthropological Dimension of Education’, Kant and Education: Interpretations and Commentary, Chris Surprenant & Klaus Roth (Eds.) (Routledge), 2011, pp. 152-62.
- ‘Kant’s Concept of Freedom and the Human Sciences’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 39(1): 113-36, 2009.
- ‘Kant on Anthropology, Alienology and Physiognomy: The Opacity of Human Motivation and its Anthropological Implications’, Kantian Review 13(2): 84-104, 2008.
- ‘Kant’s Answer to the Question ‘What is Man?’ and its Implications for Anthropology’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 39(4): 506-14, 2008.
- ‘The Ultimate Kantian Experience: Kant on Dinner Parties’, History of Philosophy Quarterly 25(4): 315-36, 2008.
- ‘Kant’s Biological Conception of History’, Journal for the Philosophy of History 2: 1-28, 2008.
- ‘The Making of a Classic: The Reception of David Hume in Europe’, New Essays on David Hume, E. Mazza & E. Ronchetti (Eds.) (Milan: Franco Angeli), 2007, 457-68.
- ‘Kant on Epigenesis, Monogenesis and Human Nature: The Biological Premises of Anthropology’, Studies in History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences 37(4): 675-93, 2006.
- ‘In Defence of Hume’s Historical Method’, British Journal of History of Philosophy 13: 489-502, 2005 [Chosen for the 'Editor's Choice Collection' that celebrates the 21st birthday of the BJHP].
- ‘Kant’s Antinomy of Reflective Judgment: A Re-evaluation’, Teorema 23(3): 183-97, 2004 [winner of the 2004 Teorema Essay Prize].
- ‘The Notion of Moral Progress in Hume's Moral Philosophy’, Hume Studies 25(1): 109-28, 2000.
- ‘La rêverie comme tentative de s'évader du monde des ob-jets’, Études Jean-Jacques Rousseau 12: 59-70, 2000.
Proceedings and short pieces
- ‘Temperament’, ‘Pathological’, Kant Lexicon, Julian Wuerth (Ed.), (CUP, forthcoming).
- ‘La dignité’, Dictionnaire des Valeurs, J. Deonna & E. Tiffenbach (Eds.), (Paris: Ithaque, 2018).
- ‘Le rôle des sentiments moraux dans l’éthique kantienne: Le complément nécessaire à la raison pratique’, Années Kant (Paris: Vrin), pp. 145-53, 2015.
- ‘Kant’s Categories of Ugliness’, Kant und die Philosophie in weltbürgerlicher Absicht, Akten des XI. Kant-Kongresses 2010 (Berlin: de Gruyter), pp. 25-35, 2013.
- Review of Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the 'Critique of Judgment', Rachel Zuckert, Metascience, 18(2): 343, 2009.
- ‘Physiological vs. Pragmatic Anthropology: A Response to Schleiermacher’s Objection to Kant’s Anthropology’, Recht und Frieden in der Philosophie Kants, Akten des X. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses (Berlin: de Gruyter), vol. 5: 3-14, 2008.
- ‘A Kantian Stance on Teleology in Biology’, South African Journal of Philosophy 26(2): 109-21, 2000.
Forthcoming papers
- 'Kant on Epistemic Autonomy', Proceedings for the 13th International Kant Congress (de Gruyter).
- ‘Biology’, The Kantian Mind, Mark Timmons and Sorin Baiasu (eds.) (Routledge).
Work in progress
- ‘Kant on Morality and Human Nature’, Kant's Ethics in Context, Stefano Bacin and Oliver Sensen (eds.), CUP.
- 'Kant on the Feeling of Life', The Concept of Drive in Classical German Philosophy, Manja Kisner and Jörg Noller (eds.), Palgrave.
- 'Kant on Feeling and the Power of Judgment', Oxford Handbook of Kant, Andrew Stephenson and Anil Gomes (eds), OUP.
- 'Kant on Epistemic Freedom and Spontaneity ', written with Yoon Choi, Kant on Freedom after Kant, Joe Saunders (ed.), Bloomsbury.
- ‘Kant on feeling and agency: On the locus of agential self-awareness’, Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism and Analytic Philosophy, Jonas Held and James Conant (eds.), Palgrave.
Editorial work
- Deputy Editor, British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
- Standing Editorial Board of Oxford Bibliographies OnLine: Philosophy, OUP.
- Editorial Board, Philosophical Quarterly.
- Editorial Board, Con-Textos Kantianos. International Journal of Philosophy and ‘Con-textos Kantianos E-Books’.
- Advisory Board, Journal of Transcendental Philosophy (Berlin, de Gruyter).
Link to my academia page: https://edinburgh.academia.edu/AlixCohen
Qualifications
Ph.D., Philosophy, Newnham College, University of Cambridge
Responsibilities & affiliations
Executive committee, British Society for the History of Philosophy
Executive committee, UK Kant Society
Founder and co-organiser of 'Kant’s Scots’, University of Edinburgh and University of St Andrews
Undergraduate teaching
I have lectured on the Greats (Descartes and Kant) and taught two Honours courses, one on Kant's Critical Philosophy and one on Freedom and the Social Contract. I also have teaching interests in History of Modern Philosophy and Aesthetics.
Student consultation hours: by appointment.