UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

Til is a doctorate student in Philosophy and a research assistant in Romance Philology, both at the University of Cologne. He is fascinated by the fact that we as humans and scientists often presuppose things that, in a way, do not exist – be it numbers, unicorns or merely possible scenarios. In his doctoral studies, he therefore is concerned with fictional speech. Although somehow comfortable in the analytic tradition, he understands Philosophy as an open project. He communicates his ideas through occasional contributions to daily newspapers and on open science platforms. He makes music and now and then he programs “mostly useless stuff”.

Hatice Kaya is a doctoral student and research assistant at the University of Cologne (CONCEPT), affiliated with the NRW Digital Kant Centre. Specializing in Kantian philosophy, she is currently writing her PhD thesis on "Kant on Epistemic Authority and Autonomy." Hatice received her B.A. in Philosophy from Boğaziçi (Bosphorus) University and her M.A. from Bilkent University. Her primary interests lie in the history of philosophy, with a particular focus on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and early modern philosophy.

Hatice’s research delves into various aspects of Kantian thought, including Kantian moral philosophy, epistemology, and political philosophy. She is particularly interested in Kant’s theory of knowledge, especially his theory of assent and testimony, the relation between autonomy and authority in Kant’s works. Additionally, she explores Kant’s contributions to the Enlightenment, his philosophy of religion, and his influence on subsequent philosophical traditions.

Jongyoon Park is a PhD student in philosophy at the University of Cologne. He studied philosophy at Korea University in South Korea and at the University of Münster in Germany. His philosophical journey began with an interest in topics such as ethics and political philosophy, as well as the history of philosophy focusing on early modern philosophy and German Idealism. However, as he turned his attention to the role and significance of cognition and reasoning in individual and social contexts, he expanded his interests to various topics in epistemology and contemporary discussions related to them. Throughout his exploration of diverse philosophical subjects, Immanuel Kant has always been his source of inspiration and philosophical home base. Currently, he is conducting research on Kant's philosophy with a focus on issues such as the meaning of self-knowledge, the spontaneity of consciousness, and epistemic autonomy. He is also an avid reader who engages with texts in a wide variety of fields such as science, history, and politics. He enjoys gaining new insights and developing his ideas through reading significant works, both alone and with others.

Lou Thomine is a PhD candidate in the Cologne Center for Contemporary Epistemology and the Kantian Tradition (CONCEPT) at the University of Cologne. She is interested in questions at the intersection of epistemology, social philosophy, and ethics. She translated from English to French Miranda Fricker’s book Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (2007) and co-authored an anthology entitled Epistemic Injustice and Violence. She is also the spokesperson of the PhD students at the a.r.t.e.s. doctoral school. Her studies are funded by a grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.