Theoretical Philosophy Essen
Welcome to the website of the Theoretical Philosophy Research Group (van Riel). Our main focus lies on fundamental research in the fields of metaphysics, philosophy of language and philosophy of science. Furthermore, we work on application-oriented topics, such as the social dimensions of language, social epistemology and the philosophy of science of the social sciences. For the specific research focuses of the individual staff members, please see the team overview.
Team OverviewAG Theoretical Philosophy
Recent News & Events
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Workshop on Conversations and Attitudinal Change
The research project ''The Therapeutic Game'' financed by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung is happy to invite you to a workshop on Conversations and Attitudinal Change at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Campus Essen) on October 28 2025.
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Award for Dr. Stefan Rinner
Stefan Rinner's research on pejorative language was honoured with the International Prize for Science & Research of the Cultural Fund of the City of Salzburg. Further information and a film portrait can be found at the following link: https://www.kulturfonds.at/preistraegerinnen/dr-phil-stefan-rinner/
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Essay Award 2024 by The Society for Analytic Philosophy (GAP) and Grazer Philosophischen Studien
Marius Mumbeck's Essay "Is there a domain of linguistic competence AI cannot grasp?" has won the Essay Award 2024 by The Society for Analytic Philosophy (GAP).Gra
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Essay Award by The Royal Institute of Philosophy
Stefan Rinner's essay “Scorekeeping in a Therapeutic Language Game” has won the Philosophy Essay Award by The Royal Institute of Philosophy. It shares first place with “The Emptiness of Naturalism” by Thomas Raleigh. The winning papers will be published in the October issue of the journal Philosophy, published by the Royal Institute of Philosophy.
Recent Publications
- S. Rinner: "Frege's Puzzle: Why Propositions Aren't the Objects of Our Propositional Attitudes". Forthcoming in: Studies in Contemporary Philosophy, Routledge.
- L. Dänzer, S. Rinner, E. Kulakova: "Conversational Scorekeeping". Published in: Philosophy Compass.
- S. Rinner: "Brains in Vats and Semantic Externalism: A New Response to the Skeptical Argument". Published in: Synthese.
- S. Rinner: "Scorekeeping in a Therapeutic Language Game". Published in: Philosophy.
- L. Schwengerer: "Self-Knowledge of Belief Requires Understanding of Propositions". Published in: Erkenntnis.
- Th. Besch, H. Kincaid, T. Menon, R. van Riel (eds.): Cultural Domination: Philosophical Perspectives, Routledge 2024.
- R. van Riel: "Hegemony and Cultural Domination", in: Th. Besch, H. Kincaid, T. Menon, R. van Riel (eds.): Cultural Domination: Philosophical Perspectives, Routledge 2024.
- L. Schwengerer: "Transparent Self-Knowledge for Social Groups", in: A. Andreotta & B. Winokur (eds.): New Perspectives on Transparency and Self-Knowledge (1st ed.). Routledge 2024.
- R. van Riel: "Reduktionismus und reduktive Erklärung", in: V. Hoffmann-Kolls und N. Rathgeb (eds.): Handbuch Philosophie des Geistes. Metzler 2024.
- L. Schwengerer: "We-Mode as Layered Agency" . Published in: Journal of Social Philosophy.
- L. Schwengerer: "Critical Social Epistemology of Social Media and Epistemic Virtues" . Published in: Social Epistemology.
- M. Mumbeck: "Is There a Domain of Linguistic Competence AI Cannot Grasp?". Published in: Grazer Philosophische Studien.
- S. Rinner: "Accommodating Hatred", in: Mihaela Popa-Wyatt (ed.): Harmful Speech and Contestation, Palgrave MacMillan 2024.
- S. Rinner: "False Friends in Political Dogwhistles". Published in: Inquiry.
- S. Rinner: "The Relational Analysis of Belief Ascriptions and Schiffer's Puzzle". Published in: Erkenntnis.
- S. Rinner: "Attitude Ascriptions: A New Old Problem for Russell's Theory of Descriptions". Published in: Synthese.
- R. van Riel, R.N. Van Gulick 2024: „Scientific Reduction" in: E. Zalta (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.