Professor Robert Stern
MA, PhD (Cambridge)
Department of Philosophy
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy
Full contact details
Department of Philosophy
45 Victoria Street
Sheffield
S3 7QB
- Profile
-
Robert Stern came to Sheffield in 1989, having been a graduate and Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge. He has been a Professor since 2000, and was Head of Department from 2004 to 2008. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2019.
- Research interests
-
His main interests in the history of philosophy are in nineteenth century post-Kantian German philosophy, especially Hegel. His interests in contemporary philosophy are in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy. He is currently working on the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup, and also on the work of Martin Luther viewed from a philosophical perspective.
His first book was Hegel, Kant and the Structure of the Object (1990), and he has compiled and written introductions for a four-volume collection of articles offering a critical assessment of Hegel's philosophy. He has also written a commentary on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (2002), and a collection of his papers under the title Hegelian Metaphysics was published in 2009.On contemporary philosophy, he has has published a book on the metaphysical and epistemological issues raised by transcendental arguments as used from Kant onwards (Transcendental Arguments and Scepticism, 2000). He has also edited a collection on this topic. He has published papers dealing with the work of McDowell, Rawls, Parfit, and MacIntyre, and retains an interest in questions relating to political philosophy, ethics and the philosophy of history.
Bob was awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for 2008-10. His research was on 'Autonomy, Self-Legislation and Moral Realism', and has led to a recent book with Cambridge University Press, entitled Understanding Moral Obligation: Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard. The book considers whether there is a coherent argument from autonomy to some form of antirealism or constructivism in ethics: if we are autonomous agents, does it follow that moral realism should be rejected?
Bob aims to establish that this argument from autonomy to anti-realism is mistaken, and shows (particularly by reference to Kant, Hegel and Kierkegaard) that its uncritical adoption has also distorted our understanding of the history of ethics. A collection of papers relating to this theme has recently been published by Oxford University Press, under the title Kantian Ethics: Value, Agency, and Obligation.
Most recently, Bob was awarded an AHRC Fellowship for 2015-17, for a project on 'The Ethical Demand: Løgstrup's Ethics and Its Implications', to work on the ethics of the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup. He has just published a monograph on this topic, entitled The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics. Further information on this project can be found here.
Current Projects
- The ethics of K. E. Løgstrup
- Martin Luther
- The connection between idealism and pragmatism
- Publications
-
Books
- The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Kantian Ethics: Value, Agency, and Obligation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Understanding Moral Obligation: Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard. Cambridge University Press.
- Hegelian Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edited books
Journal articles
- Understanding Hegel's logic: on Houlgate's Hegel on being. European Journal of Philosophy.
- Michael Inwood (1944–2021). Hegel Bulletin, 44(1), 1-4.
- I—The Presidential Address : 'How is human freedom compatible with the authority of the good?' Murdoch on moral agency, freedom, and imagination. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 122(1), 1-26. View this article in WRRO
- Is Hegelian Recognition Second-Personal? Hegel Says “No”. European Journal of Philosophy. View this article in WRRO
- Vulnerability, Trust, and Overdemandingness: Reflections from Løgstrup. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 28(5), 1-20. View this article in WRRO
- How Is Love of the Neighbour Possible? A Løgstrupian Response to a Lutheran Critique of Levinas—and Vice Versa. The Monist, 103(1), 83-101. View this article in WRRO
- Valuing Humanity: Kierkegaardian Worries About Korsgaardian Transcendental Arguments. International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, 80(4-5), 424-442. View this article in WRRO
- On Knud E. Løgstrup’s “Humanism and Christianity”. Journal for the History of Modern Theology / Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte, 26(1), 97-107. View this article in WRRO
- Indirect Communication, Authority, and Proclamation as a Normative Power: Løgstrup's Critique of Kierkegaard. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 40(1), 147-182. View this article in WRRO
- Freedom from the Self: Luther and Løgstrup on Sin as “Incurvatus in Se”. Open Theology, 4(1), 268-280. View this article in WRRO
- Why Hegel Now (Again) – and in What Form?. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 78, 187-210. View this article in WRRO
- "Determination is Negation": The Adventures of a Doctrine from Spinoza to Hegel to the British Idealists. Hegel Bulletin, 37, 29-52. View this article in WRRO
- Zu Bernard Bosanquets „Die Realität des Gemeinwillens“. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, 64(6), 990-994.
- View this article in WRRO
- Divine Commands and Secular Demands: On Darwall on Anscombe on 'Modern Moral Philosophy'. Mind, 123(492), 1095-1122. View this article in WRRO
- On Bernard Bosanquet’s “The Reality of the General Will”. Ethics, 125(1), 192-195. View this article in WRRO
- Darwall on Second-Personal Ethics. European Journal of Philosophy, 22(2), 321-333. View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- A Reply to My Critics. Inquiry, 55(6), 622-654.
- Moral Scepticism and Agency: Kant and Korsgaard. Ratio, 23, 453-474.
- Hegel, British Idealism, and the Curious case of the Concrete Universal. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 15(1), 115-153. View this article in WRRO
- Peirce, Hegel, and the Category of Secondness. Inquiry, 50(2), 123-155. View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- Does "Ought" Imply "Can"? And Did Kant Think It Does?. Utilitas, 16(1), 42-61. View this article in WRRO
- Going Beyond the Kantian Philosophy: On McDowell's Hegelian Critique of Kant. European Journal of Philosophy, 7(2), 247-269. View this article in WRRO
- Book review. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 3(2), 441-472.
- British Hegelianism: A Non-Metaphysical View?. Hegel Bulletin, 16(01), 17-38.
- British Hegelianism: A Non-Metaphysical View?. European Journal of Philosophy, 2(3), 293-321.
- Did Hegel Hold an Identity Theory of Truth?. Mind, 102, 645-647.
- James and Bradley on Understanding. Philosophy, 68(264), 193-209.
- Schelling on freedom, evil and imputation: A puzzle. European Journal of Philosophy.
- View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- Løgstrup, Knud Ejler (1905–81), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Routledge
- “This Is the Very Essence of the Reformation: Man in His Very Nature Is Destined to be Free”, Hegel's Philosophy of Right (pp. 45-65). Routledge
- Commanding, Giving, Vulnerable: What Is The Normative Standing Of The Other In Levinas? In Fagenblat M & Erdur M (Ed.), Levinas and Analytic Philosophy: Second-Person Normativity and the Moral Life (pp. 101-121).
- Levinas, Darwall, and Løgstrup on Second-Personal Ethics: Command or Responsibility? In Morgan M (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Levinas (pp. 303-320). Oxford: Oxford University Press. View this article in WRRO
- James and Hegel: Looking for a Home In Klein A (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook to William James Oxford University Press
- Hegel’s Vorbegriff to the Encyclopedia Logic and Its Context Oxford University Press View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- The Philosophy of Trust Oxford University Press View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- Others as the Ground of Our Existence In Kim H & Hoeltzel S (Ed.), Transcendental Inquiry: Its History, Methods and Critiques (pp. 181-208). Palgrave Macmillan View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- On Hegel's Critique of Kant's Ethics: Beyond the Empty Formalism Objection In Brooks T (Ed.), Hegel's Philosophy of Right (pp. 73-99). Wiley-Blackwell
- View this article in WRRO
- Moral Scepticism and Agency: Kant and Korsgaard, Agents and their Actions (pp. 99-120).
- View this article in WRRO
Book reviews
- In the spirit of Hegel?. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 103(3), 734-740. View this article in WRRO
- Kreines on the Problem of Metaphysics in Kant and Hegel. Hegel Bulletin, 39(1), 106-120.
Website content
Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries
Other
- Knud E. Løgstrup: “Humanism and Christianity”. Translated by Kees van Kooten Niekerk, Bjørn Rabjerg and Robert Stern. Journal for the History of Modern Theology / Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte, 26(1), 132-146. View this article in WRRO
- The Category and the Office of Proclamation, with Particular Reference to Luther and Kierkegaard. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 40(1), 183-209. View this article in WRRO
- The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Professional activities and memberships
-
- Chair of Philosophy sub-panel for REF2021
- Fellow of the British Academy
- Former President of the British Philosophical Association.
- Formerly the editor of the journal European Journal of Philosophy and of Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, and President of the HSGB.
- 'Hegel's Doppelsatz: A Neutral Reading' was awarded the Journal of the History of Philosophy Board of Directors annual prize for the best article of 2006.
- Awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for 2008-10, and a Leverhulme Network Grant for 2012-15, for a project on 'Idealism and Pragmatism: Convergence or Contestation?'
- Awarded an AHRC Fellowship for 2015-17