Profile

Prof. Dr. Kristina Musholt

Prof. Dr. Kristina Musholt

Professor

Cognitive Anthropology
Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum
Beethovenstraße 15, Room H2 1.02
04107 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-37056

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Abstract

I am Professor of Cognitive Anthropology in the Department of Philosophy, founding member and PI at the Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, and faculty member of the International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication.


Previously I was Junior Professor of Neurophilosophy at the University of Magdeburg and Fellow at the London School of Economics. I obtained my PhD in philosophy in 2011 from the Humboldt-University in Berlin.


My research focuses on the philosophy of mind and philosophy of cognitive science, in particular the development of self-consciousness and social cognition, the origins of normativity and the relation between conceptual and nonconceptual forms of representation. I am the author of "Thinking about Oneself: From nonconceptual content to the concept of a self" with MIT Press.


I teach at both graduate and undergraduate programs in philosophy as well as in the interdisciplinary MA program "Early Childhood Research".

Professional career

  • 09/2010 - 09/2013
    LSE Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method & Deputy Director of the Forum for European Philosophy, London, UK
  • 10/2013 - 08/2015
    Junior Professor of Neurophilosophy, Department of Philosophy, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany
  • since 09/2015
    Professor of Cognitive Anthropology at Leipzig University
  • since 01/2018
    Faculty member, International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig
  • 06/2014 - 06/2019
    Member of the “Young Academy” at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

Education

  • 10/2000 - 09/2002
    Undergraduate degree in Human Biologie at the University of Marburg
  • 10/2002 - 09/2006
    Graduate degrees in neurosciences and philosophy at the University of Magdeburg
  • 01/2007 - 06/2011
    PhD in philosophy at the Humboldt-University Berlin and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain
  • 07/2007 - 01/2009
    Visiting scholar at the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT, USA

My research interests are in philosophy of mind and philosophy of cognitive science. In particular, I am interested in self-consciousness, social cognition, the distinction between conceptual and nonconceptual forms of representation, the relation between personal and subpersonal level explanations, and the nature and origins of normativity. Part of my research consists in exploring what a developmental perspective on these and related topics can reveal. Moreover, I am curious about the relation between humans and non-human animals (both with respect to the cognitive abilities of non-human animals and with respect to animal ethics). My research is guided by the belief that there can be mutually beneficial relations between philosophy and empirical research.

  • Musholt, K.
    The personal and the subpersonal in the theory of mind debate
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. 2017. pp. 305–324.
    DOI: 10.1007/s11097-017-9504-4
    show details
  • Musholt, K.
    Thinking about oneself : from nonconceptual content to the concept of a self
    Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 2015.
    ISBN: 978-0-262-02920-9
    show details
  • Cahen, A.; Musholt, K.
    Perception, nonconceptual content, and immunity to error through misidentification
    Inquiry - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. 2017. 60 (7). pp. 703–723.
    DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2015.1122548
    show details
  • Carruthers, G.; Musholt, K.
    Ipseity at the Intersection of Phenomenology, Psychiatry and Philosophy of Mind: Are we Talking about the Same Thing?
    Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 2018. pp. 689–701.
    DOI: 10.1007/s13164-018-0392-5
    show details

more publications

  • Institut für Philosophie
    DFG-Netzwerk "Understanding Others"
    Start Date of Collaboration: 01/01/2017
    Involved persons: Musholt, Kristina
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more cooperations

I teach both general introductions to philosophy of mind and ethics as well as graduate level courses to current topics in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, such as theories of the self, the problem of free will, moral psychology, theories of social cognition, animal cognition, embodied cognition, etc.


I am also teach the module "Childhood in Interdisciplinary Context" as part of the MA program in "Early Childhood Research".



  • Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind

  • Philosophy of Childhood

  • Social Epistemology

  • The problem of free will

  • Moral psychology

  • Animal ethics

  • Theories of self-consciousness and self-knowledge

  • Metaethics

  • Naturalism and Normativity

  • Sellars: Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind

  • Introduction to the philosophy of science

  • Embodied Cognition

Research fields

Philosophy

Specializations

  • philosophy of mind and cognitive science

  • development of self-consciousness and self-knowledge

  • identity

  • social cognition

  • social epistemology

  • moral psychology

Contact for media inquiries

Phone: +49 341 97-37056
Fax: +49 341 97-35849