Associate Professor of Philosophy
University of Notre Dame
Katharina Kraus is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. At Notre Dame, she is a member of the steering committee of the newly established History of Philosophy Forum, a faculty fellow of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, and a faculty member of the Ph.D. Program in History and Philosophy of Science. Before coming to Notre Dame in 2017, she taught at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and was a post-doctorial fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
After her studies of physics, mathematics, and philosophy, she received a Diplom in physics (Master equivalent) from the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg in 2008, a Master in History and Philosophy of Science in 2010 and a PhD in philosophy in 2014, both from the University of Cambridge.
Kraus is the author of Kant on Self-Knowledge and Self-Formation (Cambridge, 2020) and of numerous articles on Kant’s theoretical philosophy in journals such as Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, European Journal of Philosophy, and Noûs. Her research interests include the philosophy of Enlightenment (esp. Locke, Leibniz and Kant), 19th and 20th century German philosophy (esp. philosophy of life and hermeneutics), as well as contemporary analytic philosophy of mind, science, and language (esp. expressivism and contextualism).
Book Symposium on ‚Kant on Self-Knowledge and Self-Formation’ (CUP, 2020), Université Paris VIII.
Stefanie Buchenau (Université Paris 8), Patrick Frierson (Whitman College), and Allen Wood (Indiana University, Bloomington) commented on my book.
Katharina T. Kraus: Kant on Self-Knowledge and Self-Formation: The Nature of Inner Experience (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
This book explores the intricate relationship between becoming an individual person and knowing oneself as such by studying Kant’s distinctive account of psychological personhood.
An expressivist interpretation of Kant’s “I think” (Wolfgang Freitag, Katharina Kraus). Noûs (2020).
This paper develops and defends an expressivist interpretation of Kant’s “I think”. It argues that “I think”, expresses the self‐consciousness that, without assertively representing the subject itself, indicates that representational contents are unified in a single consciousness of a single subject.
Research Projects
Individuality and Interconnectedness. On the Enlightenment Idea of Harmony.
The project aims to reconceive the relation between individuality and interconnectedness in modern societies by recovering foundational insights regarding the idea of harmony from Enlightenment thought.
The Life of the Mind: A Theory of Personal Development in Modern Thought
This book project aims to present a theory of the mental development of persons. It builds on conceptions of the mind from the Enlightenment and the post-Kantian periods, according to which the mind is understood in terms of a living being endowed with mental powers.
Kant’s Ideas of Reason. Elements in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant (CUP).
This book presents a novel contextualist interpretation of Kant’s ideas of reason, reconciling noumenalist and fictionalist readings of ideas.
Current Courses
Self-Knowledge and Identity (PHIL 30304)
Who am I? How did I become the person I am now? Who am I trying to be? – These are fundamental questions that we all ask ourselves from time to time, such as in moments of decision, reflection, or crisis. This seminar invites all participants to think through these...
History Of Modern Philosophy (PHIL 30302)
This course explores central figures and themes in modern philosophy, including such issue as the human mind and its relationship to the body, nature and knowledge of God, skepticism and knowledge of the external world, causality and freedom.
The Soul (PHIL 93268)
This course explores conceptions of the soul as a principle of unity, drawing from contemporary sources as well as from selected thinkers from the Ancient and the Modern periods.
