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, and a Visiting Fellowship with the Swiss National Science Foundation at the University of Neuchâtel.
Current roles at Edinburgh include Head of Philosophy. Previous roles include Deputy Head of Department, Director of Postgraduate Teaching, and Tutor Coordinator.
Book
- Kant on the Human Sciences: Biology, Anthropology and History (Palgrave, 2009)
- Kant on Emotions (under contract with OUP)
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
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‘A Kantian Account of Emotions as Feelings’, Mind, vol. 129, pp. 429–460, 2020. [one of the three most read articles in Mind in 2020]
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See Melissa Merritt’s response to it: 'Feeling and Orientation in Action: A Reply to Alix Cohen', Kantian Review, 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', written with Yoon Choi, 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.
Recent talks
- A Kantian Defense of Epistemic Autonomy, Cologne Knowledge Router, Cologne Center for Contemporary Epistemology and the Kantian Tradition, March 2021.
- Kant on Feeling, Self-Awareness and Agency, Conference on Kant on the Self, Princeton University, February 2021.
- Kant on Pleasure, Judgment and Common Sense, Panel on Cognitive Emotions in Kant, North American Kant Society, Central APA, February 2021.
- Kant on Epistemic Pleasure and Judgment, Conference on Pleasure, University of New South Wales, December 2019.
- Kant on the Feeling of Life, International conference on The Concept of Drive in Classical German Philosophy: Between Biology, Anthropology, and Metaphysics, University of Munich, October 2019.
Editorial work
- Co-Editor, British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
- Standing Editorial Board of Oxford Bibliographies OnLine: Philosophy.
- 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
Member of the Advisory Board, UK Kant Society
Founder and co-organiser of 'Kant’s Scots’, University of Edinburgh and University of St Andrews
Member of the Council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy
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.
Current PhD students supervised
In the press
- The Independent (UK), May 2012
- York University main page, April 2012
- Politis (France), December 2010
- The Age (Australia), September 2009