My research is driven by the conviction that metaphysics shapes our cognitive relation to the external world. I pursue this idea through Descartes, Baumgarten, and Kant, for whom these questions were central, and the boundaries between epistemology and metaphysics were less firm than they are today. In this vein, I examine the extent to which familiar problems, such as external-world skepticism or the ontological argument, depend on metaphysical assumptions about the nature of mental states, existence, and modality. My hope is that this approach not only deepens our understanding of these problems but also makes a case for a more integrated approach to philosophy, in which epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind unite.
Publications
Journal Articles
Kant’s Pre-Critical Metaphysics of Existence
Ergo (forthcoming)
Dreams and Paintings. Descartes, Dream Skepticism, and the Constitution of Mental States
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 113.2 (2026): 379–393. Published version.
Possibility, Actuality, and Determinacy. Baumgarten’s Metaphysics of Contingent Existents
History of Philosophy Quarterly 43(1): 27–52.
Book Chapters
Analytic Inclusion and Synthetic Addition. The Syntheticity of Existential Judgments and Non-Existent Objects in the “100 Thalers Passage”
Proceedings of the XIV. International Kant Congress, forthcoming.
Von der Phänomenologie zur Noumenologie und zurück. Troxlers anthropologischer Ansatz im zeitgenössischen Kontext
Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler. Philosophische Kontexte und Perspektiven (= problemata, vol. 159). Ed. B. Hilmer & B. Orland. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, frommann-holzboog, forthcoming.
Galilei’s Strategy of Subjectivisation
Reading the Book of Nature Across Sciences, History and Philosophy. Proceedings of the Conference to celebrate 400th anniversary of Galilei’s Il Saggiatore. Ed. D. Pietrini. Firenze: Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2026, 93–117. Published version.
Ewige Antizipation. Zukunft in objektivem und absolutem Geist
Erkenne Dich selbst – Anthropologische Perspektiven II (= Hegel-Jahrbuch, Sonderband 18). Eds. B. Bowman, M. Gerhard, & J. Zovko, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2024, 416–423. Published version.
Eine jede Philosophie dreht sich um den ontologischen Gottesbeweis? Die Spur natürlicher Theologie in Adornos Negativer Dialektik
Das Ärgernis der Philosophie. Metaphysik in Adornos Negativer Dialektik. Eds. M.N. Sommer & M. Schärli. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019, 237–278.
Die Spontaneität des Verstandes
Natur und Freiheit. Akten des XII. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses. Eds. Violetta Waibel et al. Berlin – Boston: de Gruyter, 2018, 1385–1393.
Zukunftsbewusstsein. Grundriss einer Phänomenologie der Erwartung
Erwartung. Zukunft zwischen Furcht und Hoffnung. Eds. Emil Angehrn & Joachim Küchenhoff. Weilerswist: Velbrück, 35–64.
other Publications
A Paralogism is a Paralogism. Comment on Watkins on Willaschek on Kant
Public Reason, forthcoming.
Das Ärgernis der Philosophie. Metaphysik in Adornos Negativer Dialektik.
Ed. with M.N. Sommer. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019.
Review of Oppy (2018)
Dialectica 74/1 (2020): 163–169. Published version.
David Miller, ‘Die Idee globaler Demokratie: Eine Kritik’ (from English, ‘The Idea of Global Democracy. A Critique’)
Die Idee der Demokratie. Ed. B. Hilmer. Basel, 63–81.
In progress & Under Review
Under Review
On Kant
On Early Modern
Paper on analytic judgments in Kant’s refutation of the ontological argument (under review)
Paper on the Supreme Principle Reason (under review)
Paper on doctrinal belief and the fate of special metaphysics in Kant (under review)
Paper on determinations in Kant (draft available)
Paper on merely possible objects in Kant (draft available)
Paper on indeterminacy in Descartes’ metaphysics of eternal truths (draft available)
Paper on indeterminacy, omniscience, and middle knowledge in Baumgarten (draft available)
Dissertation
In my dissertation ‘Weltverhältnis und Weltverlust [Relation to the World and its Loss],’ I defend metaphysical responses to Cartesian external world scepticism and the ontological argument.
I focus on two domains where our cognitive relation to objects appears problematic: perception and metaphysical necessity. I argue that a substantive metaphysics of the objects accessed by thoughts of these domains explains our cognitive relation to them and alleviates their problematic nature.
I integrate systematic and historical research to develop my own philosophical views, taking my lead from Descartes’ discussion of scepticism, perceptual content, and eternal truths, Baumgarten’s metaphysics of grounding and modality, and Kant’s account of existence, predication, and criticism of the ontological argument.
I: Scepticism
Chapter I argues that Descartes’ dream argument is not an argument for external world scepticism because it relies on substantial presupposition regarding the nature of dreams. Chapter II shows that Descartes defends an externalist view of perceptual content that avoids dream scepticism. Chapter III argues that the divine deception argument establishes external world scepticism based on the view that metaphysical possibilities are independent of actuality. Chapter IV shows that Descartes’ modal metaphysics undermines this view of possibilities and, thereby, external world scepticism.
II: Necessary Existence
Chapter V argues that Descartes ontological argument fails to establish an implication between God’s essence and existence because it relies on a descriptively empty existence property. Chapter VI shows that Baumgarten’s metaphysics of ontological status avoids the Cartesian problem by conceiving of existence in terms of determinacy. Chapter VII mobilises Kant’s argument against the analyticity of existential judgments against Baumgarten, and shows that Kant analyses existence as a relational property. On this view, the ontological argument fails because it views a relational property as sufficiently grounded in the essence of an entity, which is, however, ruled out by its relationality.