PD Dr. Christopher Erhard

Personal information

Studied Philosophy, Logic and Philosophy of Science at LMU Muinch. Magister Artium (MA) in Philosophy in 2006 (thesis title: "The Concept of World in Heidegger's 'Sein und Zeit'"); from 2009 to 2015 full research associate in Munich at the Chair of Metaphysics: obtained doctorate in 2012 (thesis title: "Thinking about nothing, intentionality and the problem of non-existence in Husserl"); 05/2017-08/2018: research stay at the Center for Subjectivity Research in Copenhagen (funded by the DFG): from 2015 to 2023 Akademischer Rat auf Zeit in Munich: habilitation in 2022; since 2023, Akademischer Oberrat auf Zeit at the Research Center for Neurophilosophy and Ethics of Neurosciences.

Research interests

I see the core of my philosophical work as the cultivation of a problem-focused and systematic approach to the phenomenological tradition in its full breadth, which is informed by current debates in analytic philosophy (especially in the philosophy of mind and theory of action). Of central importance here is a non-reductive understanding of the concepts of consciousness, intentionality (consciousness of something) and activity (action, behavior). In this sense, I advocate for the idea of an anti-reductivist "analytic phenomenology" in my teaching and research. Another research focus, which is still taking shape, is a philosophical animal ethics developed on a non-utilitarian basis.

Selected publications

1. Erhard, C.: Phänomenologie, in: V. Hoffmann-Kolss/N. Rathgeb (eds.), Handbuch Philosophie des Geistes. Stuttgart: Metzler. 2024, chapter 5 (forthcoming).
2. Erhard, C.: Husserls Irreversibilitätsargument gegen den Materialismus. History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 26 (1): 104-137 (2023).
3. Erhard, C.: 2021 Husserlian Intentionality, in: H. Jacobs (ed.): The Husserlian Mind. Oxon/New York: Routledge, ch. 12. (2021), pp. 157-171.
4. Erhard, C.: Negation, Non-Being, and Nothingness, in: M. Eshleman/C.L. Mui (eds.), The Sartrean Mind. Oxon/New York: Routledge, (2020), pp. 172-185.
5. Erhard, C.: Wie existiert die reale Welt? Roman Ingardens Prolegomena einer phänomenologischen Metaphysik. In: T. Keiling (ed.): Phänomenologische Metaphysik. Konturen eines Problems seit Husserl. Tübingen: UTB, 2020, chapter 7.
6. C. Erhard & T. Keiling (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology of Agency. Oxon/New: Routledge, 2020.
7. Erhard, C.: Unifying Agency. Reconsidering Hans Reiner’s Phenomenology of Activity. In: Husserl Studies 35: 1-25 (2018).
8. C. Erhard & J. Noller: Geist und pour-soi. Negative Metaphysik der Freiheit bei Scheler und Sartre, in: C. Erhard, D. Meißner & J. Noller (eds.), Wozu Metaphysik? Historisch-systematische Perspektiven. München/Freiburg: Alber, 2017, pp. 454-489.
9. Erhard, C.: Denken über nichts. Intentionalität und Nicht-Existenz bei Husserl. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 2014.