Victor Gijsbers is a University Lecturer at the Institute for Philosophy.

More information about Victor Gijsbers

Research

My main research interests are in metaphysics, where I study the topics of time, causation, and modality. I see these topics as intimately connected: it is only through a robust (non-Humean) understanding of causality that we can understand the (dynamic) nature of time and  the (inner-worldly) nature of modality. These metaphysical topics also lead me into epistemology, where I am interested in how the causal structure of the world mirrors the dynamic, reason-seeking structure of finite knowledge. Over the past decade, I have become more and more enamoured by the theoretical philosophy of Kant, and one of my aims is to develop transcendental idealism into a philosophy that is worth defending in contemporary philosophy.

Fields of interest

I used to do a lot of work on topics in the epistemology of explanation and understanding, such as the relation between explanation, understanding and unification, the contrastive nature of explanation, and the nature of mathematical explanation. While this is no longer my core research topic, I remain interested in it.

My tastes in philosophy are wide. I am passionate about the history philosophy, especially modern European philosophy from the 17^th century onwards, since that is the area I know most about. Much of my current research is inspired by Kant; and I have translated Wittgenstein's Tractatus into Dutch. I'm also very willing to engage with continental philosophy, as well as with figures that sit uneasily between traditions, such as Collingwood and Rorty.

Websites:

YouTube channel with philosophy videos
Website with occasional philosophy posts

Publications