Since 2002 the Center for Subjectivity Research (CFS) has carried out research on the self and its relations to others and the world from an interdisciplinary perspective. Its exploration of subjectivity has explicitly sought to further the integration of different philosophical traditions, in particular phenomenology, hermeneutics, analytic philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion. At the same time, however, much time has been invested in promoting the dialogue between philosophy and empirical science, in particular psychiatry and psychopathology, but also clinical psychology, cognitive science and developmental psychology.
Over the years, the center staff has worked systematically on topics such as intentionality, imagination, empathy, action, perception, embodiment, naturalism, self-consciousness, self-disorders, schizophrenia, autism, normativity, anxiety and trust. It has also done scholarly work on classical thinkers such as Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Schleiermacher, Brentano, Husserl, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas and Ricoeur. Throughout, the research has been driven by the conviction that a variety of different philosophical and empirical perspectives on subjectivity can lead to mutual enlightenment and that such methodological and conceptual pluralism is what is acutely needed in the contemporary debate.
