About

Christian Onof holds an MA and a PhD in philosophy from Birkbeck College and University College London respectively. He also studied Mathematics and Engineering, and holds a PhD from Imperial College London where he is currently employed as Reader. He is Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London. This website is devoted to his philosophical interests.

His philosophical research focuses on Kant’s transcendental idealism, its interpretation and its contemporary relevance for our understanding of reality. Particular areas of interest are: Kant’s understanding of space, transcendental freedom, the in-itself, the self, schematism, as well as Kant’s ethics, with a particular focus upon the derivation and formulation of the Categorical Imperative, and the grounding of morality.

In addressing certain problems raised by Kant’s claims, he is interested (i) in examining what the tradition which extends from Kierkegaard and Schelling to Existential Phenomenology (Heidegger, Sartre) can contribute to a broader transcendental picture, and (ii) in addressing concerns about the apparent incompatibility of Kant’s critical philosophy and contemporary mathematics and science (in particular General Relativity’s theory of space-time; non-Euclidean geometry; the nature of the quantum world).

He has written on the nature of consciousness, arguing for a shift to a transcendental perspective as the only way of making sense of the most plausible accounts of phenomenal consciousness. More generally, he is working on a theory of consciousness and its relation to the world that is compatible with a metaphysical understanding of nature as grounded in a more fundamental reality in-itself.

Chris Onof is a co-founder of the journal Episteme (Cambridge University Press). He is Area Editor for 18th and 19th Century German Philosophy at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Assessing Editor of the Journal of Mind and Behavior. He was on the Editorial Boards of Critique and Kant Studies Online.