Robert Stern
MA, PhD Cambridge
Biography
Robert Stern came to Sheffield in 1989, having been a graduate and Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge. He has been a Professor since 2000, and was Head of Department from 2004 to 2008.
Research Interests
His main interests in the history of philosophy are in nineteenth century post-Kantian German philosophy, especially Hegel. His interests in contemporary philosophy are in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy.
He is the author of Hegel, Kant and the Structure of the Object (1990), and has compiled and written introductions for a four-volume collection of articles offering a critical assessment of Hegel's philosophy. He has written a commentary on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (2002), and a collection of his papers under the title Hegelian Metaphysics was published in 2009.
On contemporary philosophy, he has has published a book on the metaphysical and epistemological issues raised by transcendental arguments as used from Kant onwards (Transcendental Arguments and Scepticism, 2000). He has also edited a collection on this topic. He has published papers dealing with the work of McDowell, Rawls, Parfit, and MacIntyre, and retains an interest in questions relating to political philosophy, ethics and the philosophy of history.
Bob was awarded a Leverhulme major Research Fellowship for 2008-10. His research was on 'Autonomy, Self-Legislation and Moral Realism', and has led to a new book with Cambridge University Press, entitled Understanding Moral Obligation: Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard. The book considers whether there is a coherent argument from autonomy to some form of antirealism or constructivism in ethics: if we are autonomous agents, does it follow that moral realism should be rejected? Bob aims to establish that this argument from autonomy to anti-realism is mistaken, and shows (particularly by reference to Kant, Hegel and Kierkegaard) that its uncritical adoption has also distorted our understanding of the history of ethics.
Professional Activities and Distinctions
- Editor of the European Journal of Philosophy from 2001 to 2012; the journal is published by Wiley-Blackwell, and aims to bring together the best work in the 'continental' and 'analytical' traditions.
- Panel member for the sub-panel in Philosophy, REF2014.
- President of the British Philosophical Association.
- Formerly the editor of the journal Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, and President of the HSGB.
- 'Hegel's Doppelsatz: A Neutral Reading' was awarded the Journal of the History of Philosophy Board of Directors annual prize for the best article of 2006.
- Awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for 2008-10, and a Leverhulme Network Grant for 2012-15, for a project on 'Idealism and Pragmatism: Convergence or Contestation?'
Current Projects
- Continuing to explore theories of moral obligation, with new focus on figures such as Raz, Darwall, and Levinas
- Working on the connection between idealism and pragmatism
- Completing second edition of Hegel and the 'Phenomenology of Spirit'
Selected Publications
- Understanding Moral Obligation: Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Cambridge University Press, 2012
- Hegelian Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, 2009
- 'Hegel, British Idealism, and the Curious Case of the Concrete Universal', British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 15 (2007), pp. 115-53
- 'Hegel's Doppelsatz: A Neutral Reading', Journal of the History of Philosophy, XLIV (2006), pp. 235-66
- 'Peirce on Hegel: Nominalist or Realist?', Transactions of the C S Peirce Society, XLI (2004), pp. 65-99
- Hegel and the 'Phenomenology of Spirit', Routledge, 2002
- Transcendental Arguments and Scepticism, Oxford University Press, 2000
- Hegel, Kant and the Structure of the Object, Routledge, 1990
Postgraduate Students
- Paul Giladi, Hegel's critique and development of Kantian theoretical philosophy.
- Josh Fedorko, Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer on 'things-in-themselves'
- Joshua Forstenzer, Pragmatic theories of democracy
- Charlotte Alderwick, Theories of freedom in German Idealism
- Joe Saunders, Freedom and transcendental idealism in Kant's ethics
- Jan Kandiyali, Marx and alienation
Office Hours
Tuesdays 3.00pm-5.00pm
Contact
email : r.stern@sheffield.ac.uk