Eugen Fischer, PD Dr.
Curriculum Vitae –
Research Interests – Publications – Work in Progress – Book Abstracts
Philosophie-Department
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz
1
D-80539
München
Eugen.Fischer@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Tel.: +49 89 2180 3829
Office: Theresienstr. 39, E034
Eugen Fischer, born 1970, obtained the degrees of BPhil (1993) and DPhil
(1996) in philosophy at
Oxford
and the Habilitation
(2002) at Munich, where he has been teaching since 1997 and currently holds the
position of Senior Lecturer (C2) in philosophy and a
Heisenberg Research Readership (funded by the German Research Council DFG). He was a Visiting
Scholar at
New York University
(1998) and has been awarded a Golestan
Fellowship at the
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study
(for 2005/6). At
Munich he served (from 1999-2001) as Founding Executive Director of the new
MPhil-programme in philosophy.
in the areas of philosophy of mind
and language, epistemology and metaphysics, metaphilosophy, philosophy of
mental health; 20th-century analytic philosophy, early modern
philosophy, Plato. In particular:
-
linguistic understanding and
semantic knowledge
-
visual perception and ‘experience’
-
cognitive distortions and psychosis
-
Wittgenstein and the
‘Austro-British’ strand of analytic philosophy
-
Berkeley and early modern philosophy
of perception
(1)
Linguistic Creativity. Dordrecht and
Boston: Kluwer, 2000
(2)
Philosophical Delusion and its Therapy. London and New York: Routledge, accepted, and scheduled for publication
in 2006
(3)
Eugen Fischer & Wilhelm Vossenkuhl: Die Fragen der Philosophie. Eine Einführung in Disziplinen und Epochen
(The Questions of Philosophy. An Introduction
to Areas and Periods). München:
C.H.Beck, 2003
(4)
Erich Ammereller & Eugen Fischer: Wittgenstein at Work. Method in the “Philosophical Investigations”. London: Routledge, 2004
(11) A Cognitive Self-Therapy – Philosophical Investigations sections
138-97, in: E.Ammereller & E.Fischer (eds): Wittgenstein at Work. Method in the “Philosophical Investigations”,
London: Routledge, 2004, pp. 86-126
(12) Aims and Method in the Investigations, with E. Ammereller, in: E.Ammereller &
E.Fischer (eds): Wittgenstein at Work,
London: Routledge, 2004, pp. ix-xix
(13) Traumskepsis: Von der Illusion einer Lösung
zum Ansatz einer Auflösung (Dream Scepticism: From an Illusory Solution to the
Outline of a Dissolution), in: R. Bluhm & C. Nimtz (eds.): Philosophy and/as Science. Selected Papers
Contributed to the 5th International Congress of the Society for Analytic
Philosophy, Paderborn: Mentis, 2004, pp. 182-92
(14) Empfindungen: Wittgensteins
Analyse eines philosophischen ‘Triebes’ (Imaginary Experiences: Wittgenstein’s
Analysis of a Philosophical ‘Urge’), in: M. Reicher et al. (eds.):
Experience and Analysis. Proceedings of
the 27th International Wittgenstein Symposium, Vienna:
öbv&hpt, 2004
(15) Austin on Sense-Data: Ordinary Language
Analysis as ‘Therapy’, accepted and forthcoming in: Grazer Philosophische Studien, vol. 70, October 2005
(16)
Beunruhigende Analogien: Was Wittgenstein Warum Will (Disquieting
Analogies: What Wittgenstein Wants Why), commissioned paper forthcoming in: Wittgenstein-Studies
(17)
Wittgensteins „Big Typescript“
über Bedeutung: Philosophie als Therapie ohne Theorie (Wittgenstein’s ‘Big Typescript’ on Meaning: Philosophy
as Therapy without Theory), forthcoming in: Archiv
für Geschichte der Philosophie
(18) Philosophical
Pictures, under review
(19) Wittgenstein’s
Non-Cognitivism, under review
(20) Berkeley’s
‘Arguments’ for Idealism, work in progress
(21) Berkeley
et al. on Immediate Perception, work in progress
(22) The
Concept of Delusion, work in progress
(23) Understanding
Psychosis: What Cognitive Models Can Do, work in progress
(1)
Linguistic Creativity. Exercises in ‘Philosophical Therapy’. Dordrecht and
Boston: Kluwer, 2000
vol.81 of the Philosophical Studies Series, ed. by Keith Lehrer
Publisher’s abstract
How is it that speakers can get to know the meaning of any of indefinitely many sentences they have never encountered before? – The ‘problem of linguistic creativity’ posed by this question is a core problem of both philosophy of language and theoretical linguistics, and has sparked off a considerable amount of work in the philosophy of mind. The book establishes the failure of the familiar – compositional – approach to this problem, and then takes a radically new start: It develops core elements of the later Wittgenstein’s conception of philosophy, and puts them to work to ‘dissolve’ the problem, to prove it ill-framed by clarifying the questions posing it and breaking the spell of mistaken analogies informing it. This sharply focused monograph thus has a two-fold aim: to cope with a crucial problem that turns out to be a lot tougher than generally thought; and to present a precise and rigorous demonstration of an unfamiliar and exciting philosophical approach. (193+xiv pp.)
Content
|
Part I |
The
Problem: Ch.1 The Orthodox Perspective: A Problem of Linguistic Creativity,
Ch.2 The Philosophical Problem: The Plight of Orthodoxy. |
|
Part II |
New
Methods: Ch.3 Philosophical Dissolution: Unintelligible Questions, Ch.4
Philosophical Therapy: A Sense of Wonder and a Change of Aspect |
|
Part III |
A
Therapy: Ch. 5 Semantic Creativity: The Philosophical Problem Again, Ch.6
Semantic Creativity: Problem-Dissolution and Therapy. Postscript: Dissolving
Philosophical Problems |
(2)
Philosophical Delusion and its Therapy. A Metaphilosophical Inquiry. London and New York: Routledge, accepted and
scheduled for publication in 2006
Author’s Abstract
Many important philosophical problems arise from the
impression that there is a tension between different claims philosophers feel
equally compelled to accept: Our self conception as free and rational agents
appears to conflict with the scientific world-view of modernity, giving rise to
mind-body problems; the claim that all we directly perceive are immaterial
sense-data appears to contradict common sense, etc. Philosophers sympathetic to
both sides typically try to reconcile what appears to be at odds. Such
‘reconciliation problems’, however, are frequently raised without good reason:
all too often we lack all warrant either for the claims to be reconciled or for
the impression of a tension between them. The book documents that, and examines
how, competent thinkers are systematically driven to formulate such poor
problems: how they leap, on the sketchiest of ‘grounds’, to unwarranted or even
downright absurd claims, and maintain them even once they have realised that
all the arguments adduced for them fail. Philosophical
Delusion and its Therapy analyses, first, how competent thinkers may come
to systematically develop and maintain such delusions. Second, it develops a
therapeutic approach to rid us of pertinent delusions and resolve the problems
they (appear to) generate. To both ends, the book adapts notions from cognitive
approaches in clinical psychology, on the one hand, and from Ludwig
Wittgenstein and J.L.Austin, on the other. The metaphilosophical argument is
developed by analysing two sets of philosophical problems, chosen to cover four
core areas of philosophy: the epistemological and metaphysical problems
addressed and generated by the sense-datum doctrine of perception; and a set of
problems at the intersection of the philosophies of mind and language, about
linguistic understanding (instantaneous understanding and linguistic
creativity). The analysis is developed through a series of case studies,
covering thinkers representative of different philosophical traditions: Berkeley,
A.J.Ayer, Wittgenstein, and a group of Oxford philosophers equally influenced
by Frege and Wittgenstein. The concluding Outlook outlines how the concepts
developed might be applied to metaphysical mind-body problems. In this way, Philosophical Delusion and its Therapy
develops a novel account of the nature and genesis of a core class of
philosophical problems: reconciliation problems. On this basis, it establishes
precisely where and why therapy is called for in philosophy, and develops a set
of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques: a rigorous method of philosophical
therapy. (ca. 300 pp., incl. index)
Content
|
|
Ch.0 Introduction |
|
Part I – The Need for Therapy |
Ch.1 An Early Modern Vision Ch.2 Ayer’s Delusion Ch.3 The Therapeutic Turn |
|
Part II – Models of Therapy |
Ch.4 Austin’s Response to Ayer Ch.5 Cognitive Therapy Ch. 6 Wittgenstein’s Self-Therapy |
|
Part III – Methods of Therapy |
Ch. 7 Determining Meaning Ch. 8 Switching Analogies Ch.9 A Comprehensive Intervention |
|
|
Ch.10 Recapitulation and Outlook |
(3)
Eugen Fischer & Wilhelm Vossenkuhl (Hgg.): Die Fragen der Philosophie. Eine Einführung
in Disziplinen und Epochen. München: C.H.Beck, 2003
abstract
der herausgeber (redigiertes Verlagsabstract)
Diese Einführung gibt knapp, aber umfassend eine zugleich systematische und historische Problemübersicht, aus der das „Interesse“ der verschiedenen Disziplinen und der „Geist“ der verschiedenen Epochen der Philosophie hervorgeht. Im ersten Teil des Bandes werden die wichtigsten Disziplinen der Philosophie mit ihren Leitfragen und –problemen vorgestellt, im zweiten Teil die zentralen Epochen der Philosophiegeschichte mit den sie jeweils prägenden philosophischen Anliegen. Der Band gibt Studenten und allen an Philosophie Interessierten eine erste Antwort auf die Frage: Was ist und was soll Philosophie? (368 S.)
Inhalt
Einleitung: Was ist Philosophie? (E.Fischer & W.Vossenkuhl)
Erster Teil – Disziplinen der Philosophie
Ethik: Die Wissenschaft vom guten Handeln (W.Vossenkuhl), Politische Philosophie: Legitime Autorität und Gerechtigkeit (M.Rechenauer), Handlungstheorie: Was unser Handeln verursacht (S.Sellmaier), Philosophie des Geistes: Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung gegen menschliches Selbstbild (E.Fischer), Sprachphilosophie: Die Flüchtigkeit der Bedeutung (J.Haag), Logik: Von Epimenides zu Gödel (G.Link & K.-G.Niebergall), Metaphysik: Die Tücken der Existenz (J.Hübner), Erkenntistheorie: Wissen, Meinen und Zweifel (S.Bernecker), Wissenschaftstheorie: Von Wesen und Struktur der Erfahrunsgwissenschaften (U.Moulines), Ästhetik: Von Gegenständen und Wahrnehmung der Kunst (A.Esser & J.Steinbrenner)
Zweiter Teil – Epochen der Philosophie
Ist wirklich dasselbe, was zu denken ist und was existiert? – Klassische griechische Philosophie (T.Buchheim), Die scholastische Form der Rationalität: Die Philosophie des Mittelalters (R.Schönberger), Die Entstehung der Neuzeit: Die Philosophie der Renaissance (E.Keßler), Das Licht der Vernunft und die Schatten des Zweifels: Der klassische rationalismus (U.Metschl), Allein aus Erfahrung wird man klug: Der klassische Empirismus (J.Kulenkampff), Die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Vernunft: Kant und der deutsche Idealismus (G.Zöller), Die Moderne als Herausforderung: Deutsche Philosophie von Nietzsche bis Heidegger (A.Reckermann), „Jedes Wort hat eine Bedeutung“: Analytische Philosophie von Frege bis Wittgenstein (D.Lotter), Der Logische Positivismus und seine Auflösung in der amerikanischen Nachkriegsphilosophie (D.Greimann)
(4)
Erich Ammereller & Eugen Fischer (eds.): Wittgenstein at Work. Method in the
“Philosophical Investigations”. London:
Routledge, 2004
Last revised: April 25th,
2005