Profile

Dr. Lucian Ionel

Dr. Lucian Ionel

Academic Staff

Practical Philosophy
Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum
Beethovenstraße 15, Room H2 1.05
04107 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97 - 35802

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Abstract

Lucian Ionel is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Leipzig University. He previously held fellowships at the Centre for Advanced Studies Human Abilities in Berlin (2021–2022) and at the University of Pittsburgh as a DFG Research Fellow (2019–2021), and was a member of the DFG Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks–BrainTools in Freiburg (2017–2018). He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Freiburg and the University of Strasbourg. His dissertation was published as "Sinn und Begriff: Negativität bei Hegel und Heidegger" (De Gruyter, 2020). His research addresses systematic questions in philosophy of mind and practical philosophy within the Aristotelian and post-Kantian traditions.

Professional career

  • since 04/2023
    Assistant Professor at the Institute for Philosophy of Leipzig University
  • 04/2022 - 09/2022
    Lectureship at the University of Freiburg
  • 10/2021 - 03/2022
    DFG Research Fellow at the Human Abilities Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities, Free University of Berlin
  • 06/2019 - 09/2021
    DFG Postdoctoral Visiting Scholar at the Department of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
  • 01/2019 - 05/2019
    Research Assistant at the Chair for Contemporary Philosophy and Philosophy of Technology, University of Freiburg
  • 05/2017 - 12/2018
    Research Fellow in the DFG Excellence Cluster BrainLinks-BrainTools. Research Group Norms & Nature, University of Freiburg

Education

  • 10/2013 - 11/2017
    PhD (summa cum laude) at the University of Freiburg Joint Doctoral Degree from the University of Strasbourg
  • 09/2015 - 03/2016
    Doctoral Research at the University of Strasbourg
  • 10/2010 - 09/2012
    Master of Arts in Philosophy (summa), University of Freiburg
  • 10/2008 - 09/2009
    Erasmus Grant, University of Freiburg
  • 10/2007 - 09/2010
    Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (summa), University of Iasi

My research focuses on philosophy of mind and practical philosophy in the Aristotelian and post-Kantian traditions. My current project investigates the sources of practical concepts and the nature of practical objectivity. A central theme is the paradox that our conceptual capacities are both inherited and self-determining: they enable the activities they govern while at the same time presupposing them – a problem first dramatized in Plato’s Meno and later discussed by Anscombe. In this context, I explore how practical concepts depend on conditions such as natural dispositions and historical practices, without being determined by them. I also work on virtue as a form of practical knowledge, and on authority and power as distinctive kinds of capacities. My research connects classical sources – Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, and Anscombe – with contemporary debates on agency, reason, and normativity.

  • The Nature of Human Capacities
    Ionel, Lucian
    Duration: 06/2019 – 03/2022
    Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Philosophie mit Schwerpunkt Praktische Philosophie
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more projects

more publications

  • Manuscript Workshop
    Pervious to Others: Pervious to Others: The Nature and Control of Social The Nature and Control of Social Self-Consciousness
    Philosophie mit Schwerpunkt Praktische Philosophie
    Event Organiser: Rödl, Sebastian; Ionel, Lucian
    02/07/2025 – 04/07/2025
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  • Workshop Ljubljana - Leipzig
    The Object of Practical Knowledge
    Philosophie mit Schwerpunkt Praktische Philosophie
    Event Organiser: Ionel, Lucian
    06/05/2025 – 08/05/2025
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  • Workshop
    Die Rückkehr des Denkens aus der Natur
    Institut für Philosophie
    Event Organiser: Ionel, Lucian
    31/10/2024 – 01/11/2024
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  • Workshop
    Endlichkeit und Möglichkeit
    Philosophie mit Schwerpunkt Praktische Philosophie; Philosophie mit Schwerpunkt Geschichte der Philosophie
    Event Organiser: Ionel, Lucian; Spigt, Joris
    05/06/2024
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  • Workshop
    Denken und seine Geschichtlichkeit in der klassischen Deutschen Philosophie
    Philosophie mit Schwerpunkt Praktische Philosophie
    Event Organiser: Ionel, Lucian; Koch, Dr. Karen
    03/05/2024 – 04/05/2024
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more events

  • Elizabeth Anscombe's action theory

    Seminar, Summer Semester 2023

  • Aesthetic power of judgement

    Seminar, Winter Semester 2023/24

  • Hegel's concept of Geist

    Seminar, Winter Semester 2023/24

  • Being and Time

    Seminar, SoSe 2024. Together with Joris Spigt

  • Weakness of will

    Seminar, Winter Semester 2024/25

  • Social self-consciousness

    Seminar, Summer Semester 2025

  • Wittgenstein on the Soul

    Seminar, Summer Semester 2025

  • Meno's Paradox

    Seminar, Winter Semester 2025/26

  • Kant's Practical Philosophy

    Seminar, Winter Semester 2025/26