Michael Steinmann
Professor
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Research
Ethics, including Applied Ethics, 19th- and 20th-Century Continental Philosophy
General Information
I am a philosopher trained in the tradition of Continental philosophy. I am interested in continuing some of the questions that have been raised in this tradition, such as the possibility of a foundation of ethical values and theories and the problem of determining the nature of the human mind. I am also deeply interested in questions of applied ethics and the use of philosophical ideas in current political debates.
In my most recent monograph, "Reframing Ethics Through Dialectics. A New Understanding of the Moral Good" (Bloomsbury 2023), I argue that moral thinking is based on one fundamental notion, the notion of the absolute good. All moral determinations and theories are involved in dialectical contradictions and fail the good, which is their standard. Being moral means to acknowledge the contradictions that all positions involve, I believe.
I am currently working on a new monograph, whose working title is "The Meaning of the Mind: Reclaiming the Question of the Purpose of Human Thought." I argue that the mind does not provide a hard problem, as some assume, but a hard stop. We have to accept that there is no theoretical explanation for it. Instead, we should consider what we lose if we consider the mind as a property that needs to have a physical origin or in an exclusively instrumental way, as a tool for cognition. Not only do we lose the ability to experience truth as it originates from the mind of others, we also miss the question of what it means to think in the first place. In the book, I want to explore ways in which the question of the meaning of thought can be raised again in a productive way.
In my most recent monograph, "Reframing Ethics Through Dialectics. A New Understanding of the Moral Good" (Bloomsbury 2023), I argue that moral thinking is based on one fundamental notion, the notion of the absolute good. All moral determinations and theories are involved in dialectical contradictions and fail the good, which is their standard. Being moral means to acknowledge the contradictions that all positions involve, I believe.
I am currently working on a new monograph, whose working title is "The Meaning of the Mind: Reclaiming the Question of the Purpose of Human Thought." I argue that the mind does not provide a hard problem, as some assume, but a hard stop. We have to accept that there is no theoretical explanation for it. Instead, we should consider what we lose if we consider the mind as a property that needs to have a physical origin or in an exclusively instrumental way, as a tool for cognition. Not only do we lose the ability to experience truth as it originates from the mind of others, we also miss the question of what it means to think in the first place. In the book, I want to explore ways in which the question of the meaning of thought can be raised again in a productive way.
Experience
Lecturer for Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University, 2007-2008
Visiting Professor at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2007 and 2011
Co-Director of the Program for Basic Ethical-Philosophical Studies, 2005-2007
Research Fellow, Interdepartmental Center for Ethics in the Sciences and in the Humanities and Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Tübingen, 2003-2005
Research Fellow and Lecturer, from 2006 as Privatdozent, Department of Philosophy, University of Freiburg 2002-2007
Research Fellow and Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Tübingen, 1999-2002
Visiting Professor at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2007 and 2011
Co-Director of the Program for Basic Ethical-Philosophical Studies, 2005-2007
Research Fellow, Interdepartmental Center for Ethics in the Sciences and in the Humanities and Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Tübingen, 2003-2005
Research Fellow and Lecturer, from 2006 as Privatdozent, Department of Philosophy, University of Freiburg 2002-2007
Research Fellow and Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, University of Tübingen, 1999-2002
Institutional Service
- Academic Planning and Resources Committee Member
- University Promotions and Tenure Committee Member
- Program in Humanities and Social Sciences Chair
- CAL Curriculum Committee Chair
- Hiring Committee for Dean of Undergraduate Education Member
- Nominations and Governance Board of Trustees Sub-Committee Member
- Hiring Committee for Tenured Professor in Music & Technology Chair
- CAL Nominating Committee Chair
- Institute Promotions and Tenure Committee Member
- Hiring Committee Quantitative Social Science Chair
- Curriculum Committee Chair
- Faculty Senate Chair
Professional Service
- Existenz. An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts Member of Board of Advisors
- Nietzsche Circle Member of Board of Advisors
- Karl Jaspers Society of North America Executive-at-Large
Appointments
Faculty Member, School of Business, Stevens Institute of Technology, 2022-2025
Professional Societies
- APA – American Philosophical Association Member
- Martin Heidegger Gesellschaft Member
- Nietzsche Circle Member
- North American Heidegger Circle Member
- KJSNA – Karl Jaspers Society of North America Member
Selected Publications
Book
- Steinmann, M. (2023). Reframing Ethics Through Dialectics. A New Understanding of the Moral Good. no. London: Bloomsbury Academics.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/reframing-ethics-through-dialectics-9781350286887/. - Steinmann, M.; Durakoglu, A.; Tuncel, Y. (2022). Nietzsche and Music: Philosophical Thoughts and Musical Experiments. no. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-8371-9.
Book Chapter
- Steinmann, M. (2022). Thinking Through Music. On Non-Propositional Thought in Nietzsche’s Philosophy. Nietzsche and Music: Philosophical Thoughts and Musical Experiments (pp. 20-36). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-8371-9. - Steinmann, M. (2021). “Schopenhauer und Nietzsche. Ein Vortragszyklus (1919)“ . Handbook Georg Simmel. Edited by Jörn Bohr / Tim-Florian Goslar / Gerald Hartung / Heike Koenig (pp. 273-280). Stuttgart: Metzler.
Book Review
- Steinmann, M. (2021). Konrad Paul Liessmann, „Alle Lust will Ewigkeit. Mitternächtliche Versuchungen,” . Der Blaue Reiter (48 ed., pp. 105). Hannover.
- Steinmann, M. (2019). Werner Stegmaier, “Europa im Geisterkrieg. Studien zu Nietzsche.“ . The Agonist. A Nietzsche Circle Journal (2 ed., vol. 12, pp. 64-69). online.
Conference Proceeding
- Steinmann, M. (2022). The Aesthetics of the Posthuman Human. Remarks Based on Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. no. Journal of Posthumanism (1 ed., vol. 2, pp. 79-85). London: Transnational Press.
https://journals.tplondon.com/jp/issue/view/123. - Steinmann, M. (2019). “Phenomenology as Realism” . Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Conference of the North American Heidegger Circle (pp. 171-172). online.
Heidegger Circle website currently under re-construction.
Journal Article
- Steinmann, M. (2022). Alienation in a World of Data. Toward a Materialist Interpretation of Digital Information Technologies. no. Philosophy and Technology (vol. 35, pp. 99 (article number)). New York: Springer.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-022-00595-3. - Steinmann, M. (2019). The axial age and the quest for a secular religion in modernity. no. Existenz. International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts (1 ed., vol. 14, pp. 98-106). Online https://existenz.us/: Karl Jaspers Society of North America.
https://existenz.us/volumes/Vol.14-1Steinmann.pdf. - Steinmann, M. (2019). “Some remarks on new translations of Jaspers’ works.”. Existenz. An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts (2 ed., vol. 13, pp. 97-100). online.
https://existenz.us/volumes/Vol.13-2Steinmann.pdf.