SAMANTHA MATHERNE
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
about
I am interested in the relations between perception, cognition, and aesthetics, as well as the pervasive role imagination plays in our lives. I approach these issues through the lens of Immanuel Kant, post-Kantian philosophers (especially Phenomenologists and Neo-Kantians), and aesthetic theory.
In my most recent book, Seeing More: Kant's Theory of Imagination (Oxford University Press, 2024), I explore the question of how imaginative we are by way of a systematic interpretation of Kant's theory. In particular, I explore a Kantian view of how imagination shapes our epistemic, aesthetic, and practical activities. I have also written the volume on the Neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer for the Routledge Philosophers Series (Routledge; amazon). And I am a co-author, along with Dominic McIver Lopes, Mohan Matthen, and Bence Nanay, of The Geography of Taste (Oxford University Press, 2024, open access).
I am currently exploring the neglected work of the early 20th-century German philosopher, Edith Landmann-Kalischer, and I have edited the first English translation of her work: Edith Landmann-Kalischer: Essays on Art, Aesthetics, and Value (translated by Daniel Dahlstrom, in Oxford's New History of Philosophy Series, 2023)
I participate in two projects oriented around rethinking the history of philosophy: Extending New Narratives and History of Women Philosophers and Scientists.