Research in Theoretical Philosophy

History

The history of theoretical philosophy at the University of Gothenburg dates back to 1893, when the first professor of philosophy, Vitalis Norström (1856–1916), was appointed. Like his two immediate successors, Malte Jacobsson (1885–1966) and Gunnar Aspelin (1898–1977), Norström moved freely between theoretical and practical philosophy in his research but taught mainly in theoretical philosophy.
The first professor of theoretical philosophy was the internationally renowned Neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945), who served at Gothenburg between 1935–1941, having left Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933. It is however fair to say that the subject’s modern history starts with the 1951 appointment of Ivar Segelberg (1914–1987). Segelberg’s main philosophical interests were analytic ontology, and phenomenology in the tradition of the early Husserl. Segelberg served as professor for almost three decades and came to have a formative influence upon his students, three of whom, Mats Furberg (1933–), Dag Westerståhl (1946–) and Helge Malmgren (1945–), also became professors in theoretical philosophy in Gothenburg. Whereas most of his students attest to Segelberg’s importance for their intellectual development, few came to study the same problems he did. Furberg is a philosopher of language, Westerståhl is a philosopher of logic and Malmgren is a philosopher of mind. Furberg, Malmgren and Westerståhl are now retired. 
The current professor is Anna-Sofia Maurin (1969–). With her appointment, ontology (as well as metaphysics more broadly conceived) has once again become a main topic of research in Gothenburg.

People

Our researchers work on a wide variety of issues in Theoretical Philosophy: in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language.

Below is a list of researchers (including PhD-students) currently employed in the subject (plus a couple of lecturers and researchers with close ties to it). Click on the links provided to learn more about what they’re up to.

Professor

Anna-Sofia Maurin: Anna-Sofia is the subject’s professor. She works primarily in meta- and metametaphysics, on the philosophy of properties (especially tropes), on questions to do with fundamentality, infinite regress, and understanding the distinction between vicious and benign regress, as well as on questions to do with ontological justification, truthmaking, grounding and, in particular, metaphysical explanation. Recently she has ventured into the field of social ontology, with a special focus on (social metaphysical/constitutive) explanation.
For more information check out Anna-Sofia’s internal webpage, or Anna-Sofia's external webpage. 
 

Lecturers

Daniel Giberman: Dan is docent and senior lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy. Dan earned his PhD from Stanford. Before coming to Gothenburg in 2023 he was an associate professor in Philosophy at the University of Texas Arlington. Dan works primarily in metaphysics, including its overlap with the philosophy of mind and language. For more information check out Dan’s internal webpage, or Dan's external webpage.

Martin Kaså: Martin is presently employed as senior lecturer in Logic. He has a PhD in Theoretical Philosophy and his research interests exist in the intersection between logic and philosophy of language. For more information check out Martin’s internal webpage.

Felix Larsson: Felix is senior lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy. His area of expertise is philosophy of language/mind (especially intentionality and speech act theory). For more information check out Felix’s internal webpage. 

Filip Radovic: Filip is docent and senior lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy. He works primarily on issues in the philosophy of mind, to do with delusions and dreaming, both from a contemporary and a historical perspective. For more information check out Filip’s internal webpage.

Susanna Radovic: Susanna is docent and senior lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy. Her research is focused on issues in philosophy of mind and philosophy of law. She is involved in various inter-disciplinary collaborations, working together with researchers from psychiatry, psychology, and law. For more information check out Susanna’s internal webpage. Or visit the webpage of Susanna's ongoing DIMENSION project.

Kevin Reuter: Starting May 2025, Kevin, currently at the University of Zurich, takes up the position of senior lecturer in theoretical philosophy with us here in Gothenburg. His areas of expertise include Philosophy of Mind, Language, Decision Making, Truth and Conspiracy Theories, as well as Experimental Philosophy. For more information, check out Kevin’s external webpage.

Ylwa Sjölin Wirling: Ylwa is docent and lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy. Starting 2024 she is also a Pro Futura Scientia fellow, a fellowship funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study. Ylwa’s area of expertise is epistemology, philosophy of science, and metaphilosophy. For more information check out Ylwa’s internal webpage, or go to Ylwa's external webpage.

Researchers

Alva Stråge: Alva is a researcher in the project “Free Will Foundations: Metaethical and Methodological Underpinnings of Free Will Theories” (funded by the Swedish Research Council 2024-2027). For more information check out Alva’s internal webpage. 

Gustavo Fernandez Walker: Gustavo  is assistant researcher specializing in the History of Philosophy. For more information go to Gustavo’s internal webpage. 

PhD-students

Alla Choifer: Alla is a doctoral student in Theoretical Philosophy, supervised by Bengt Brülde. She is writing a thesis in the philosophy of mind. For more information check out Alla’s internal webpage. 

Thilde Wolf: Thilde is a doctoral student in Theoretical Philosophy, supervised by Anna-Sofia Maurin and Daniel Giberman. She is writing a thesis in social metaphysics. For more information check out Thilde’s internal webpage.

Affiliated

(in alphabetical order)

Here are some people more or less strongly affiliated with our subject. The list could have been made much longer!

Helge Malmgren: Until 2012 Helge was the professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg. He is now retired. 
For more information, go to Helge's external webpage. 

Ana María Mora Márquez: Ana María is docent in Theoretical Philosophy, a Wallenberg Academy Fellow (2015-2027), and an international member of the CNRS research center SPHERE, in Paris. She is a specialist in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and works primarily in epistemology and philosophy of science. In the past she has worked in philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. Until 2024, she was a researcher in theoretical philosophy here in Gothenburg. Starting 2025, Ana María is senior lecturer in theoretical philosophy at Lund University. For more information check out Ana María's external webpage.

Jenny Pelletier: Jenny is a professor and researcher at the De Wulf-Mansion Centre for Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy in Leuven and specializing in the philosophy of William Ockham. 2021- 2024 she was the PI of the project Making the Medieval World. The Metaphysical Foundations of Social Groups in Late Medieval Philosophy funded by the Swedish Research Council and placed at the University of Gothenburg. For more information go to Jenny’s external webpage. 

Stellan Petersson: Stellan is presently employed as senior lecturer in Swedish. He received his PhD in Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg on a thesis in the philosophy of language titled Disarming Context Dependence. For more information go to Stellan’s internal webpage. 

Anders Tolland: Anders is a recently retired senior lecturer in Theoretical Philosophy. His main area of research is epistemology and philosophy of language (especially relativism and speech act theory). For more information check out Anders' external webpage.

Dag Westerståhl: 1998-2010 Dag was the August Rhööst professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg. He is presently professor emeritus in Theoretical Philosophy and Logic at Stockholm University and Jin Yuelin professor of Logic at Tsinghua University, Beijing.  For more information go to Dag’s external webpage. 

Maximilian Zachrau: Max finished his PhD, supervised by Anna-Sofia Maurin, in May 2024 with the dissertation: Fundamental Dynamicity – A Metaphysics of Time and Process. He is currently employed as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Siegen. For more information check out Max's external webpage.

Teaching Theoretical Philosophy at FLoV

In Gothenburg (as in most other universities in Sweden) courses in theoretical philosophy are taught separately from courses in practical philosophy, and there is a separate theoretical philosophy degree.
In Sweden we make a distinction between first, second, and third cycle education. First cycle is more or less equivalent to the undergraduate level, or bachelor's level of studies. Second cycle corresponds to graduate level or master's level studies. Third cycle corresponds to doctoral or PhD level studies.

For more information about the Swedish system, see Study levels and degrees: link to external web page at studera.nu

Our current curriculum in theoretical philosophy includes courses in:
First Cycle Studies: (first semester) philosophical method, history of philosophy (including a course on the ‘birth’ on analytic theoretical philosophy), epistemology and (second semester) logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and (third semester) research-oriented specializations in all the core-areas of theoretical philosophy.
Second Cycle Studies: advanced orientations as well as research-oriented specializations in all core areas of theoretical philosophy.
All our teaching is in the analytic tradition, broadly construed.