I write about nature, natural science and classical German philosophy. I am currently working on two projects. The first considers the history and philosophy of biology, especially the role of organisation in explanation. The second explores Amalia Holst's critique of the German Enlightenment.

I'm involved in several activities to share research in philosophy with a wide audience. I am a BBC/AHRC 2023 New Generation Thinker, I co-direct the London Post-Kantian Seminar, I am a member of the Warwick Centre for Research in Post-Kantian European Philosophy, and I serve on the executive committee of the UK Kant Society. I am also co-investigator on Empowering Young Voices with Karen Simecek, in partnership with Coventry Boys and Girls Club.

Before coming to Warwick, I received a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sydney and undertook postdoctoral studies at University of Bonn, Durham University and University College London. I have been a visiting scholar at UC San Diego (2018) and University of Chicago (2019), and a visiting fellow at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (2020) and The Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh (2023).

For further details of my current research, see my website.

Teaching

• PH3A9 Philosophy of NatureLink opens in a new window - Term 1
• PH332 Sartre and ExistentialismLink opens in a new window - Term 2
• PH25090 The Logic of Life (MA) - Term 2

Publications

​Books

Amalia Holst. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

Kant and the Transformation of Natural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - Online AccessLink opens in a new window

The Tragedy of Philosophy: Kant's Critique of Judgment and the project of aesthetics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2016 (paperback 2017). - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - Chapter 1Link opens in a new window - Reviewed in: Journal of Aesthetics and Art CriticismLink opens in a new window, Philosophy TodayLink opens in a new window

​Edited Books

Amalia Holst: On the Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education. Trans. and ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window

Edited Journals

Kant and philosophy of science. Edited with Andy Jones, Kantian Review 2023. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

Journal Articles

​Kant's ongoing relevance for philosophy of science (with Andy Jones). Kantian Review 28(3), 2023: 337-354. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Hypotheses in Kant's philosophy of science. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 99, 2023: 97-105. - Website Link opens in a new window- Download Link opens in a new window-

Reading Kant's Kritik der Urteilskraft in England, 1796-1840. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 29(3), 2021: 472-493. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Iris Murdoch on Moral Perception. The Heythrop Journal ​62(3), 2021: 454-466. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Judgment, normativity and the subject. Thesis Eleven 161(1), 2020: 35-50. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Do functions explain? Hegel and the organisational view. Hegel Bulletin 41(3), 2020: 389-406. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Kant's Universal Conception of Natural History. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science ​79, 2020: 77-87. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Living Natural Products in Kant's Physical Geography. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 78, 2019. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Systematicity in Kant's third Critique. ​Idealistic Studies 48(1), 2018: 25-46. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - Download -

Two Directions for Teleology: Naturalism and idealism. Synthese 195(7), 2018: 3097-3119. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

A Critical Method for Natural History: the development of Kant's teleological principle. Estudos Kantianos ​5(2), 2017: 105-124. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

The Representation of an Action: Tragedy between Kant and Hegel. European Journal of Philosophy 25(3), 2017: 573-594. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - Download -

Kant and Experimental Philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25(2), 2017: 256-286. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

For the (Philosophical) Love of Poetic Beauty: Plato’s hope in Republic. Philosophical Inquiry 41(1) 2017: 111-126. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Beyond Heidegger: from ontology to action. Thesis Eleven 140(1), 2017: 90-105. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Nature’s Ultimate End: hope and culture in Kant’s third Critique. Philosophica 48(1), 2016: 31-45. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Interested Creatures: Kant on normativity and nature. Kant Studies Online 2016: 48-77. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Philosophy’s Tragedy. Metaphilosophy 47(1), 2016: 59-74. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Being or Chaos? Heidegger and Castoriadis at the crossroads. Cosmos and History 8(2), 2012: 78-99. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Book Chapters

The problem of Whewell's idealism. Forthcoming in Cambridge Idealism: A History. Edited by Lukas M. Verburgt. London: Bloomsbury. - Recorded TalkLink opens in a new window -

Coleridge and the science of life. Forthcoming in Matter and Life in Coleridge, Schelling, and Other Dynamical Idealists. ​Edited by Peter Cheyne. Dordrecht: Springer Nature. - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

​Amalia Holst (1758-1829). The Oxford Handbook for Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition. Edited by Dalia Nassar & Kristin Gjesdal. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, 24-43. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Kant and biological theory. Forthcoming in Life, Organism and Human Nature: New Perspectives on Classical German Philosophy. Edited by Luca Corti & Johannes-Georg Schülein. Dordrecht: Springer Nature, 2023, 21-37. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

The economy of the Bildungstrieb in Goethe's comparative anatomy. In The Concept of the Drive in Classical German Philosophy. Edited by Manja Kisner and Jörg Noller. London: Palgrave, 2022, 83-105. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - Download Link opens in a new window-

Kant on observation. In The Court of Reason: Proceedings for the 13th International Kant Congress. Edited by Camilla Serck-Hanssen and Beatrix Himmelmann. ​Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021, 941-950. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Force and Law in Kielmeyer's 1793 speech. In Kielmeyer and the Organic World. Edited by Daniel Whistler and Lydia Azadpour. London: Bloomsbury, 2020, 81-98. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Aesthetics and Autonomy. In Castoriadis and Radical Democracy. Edited by Vrasidas Karalis. Leiden: Brill, 2014, 87-116. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Encyclopedia Entries

Naturphilosophie. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge: London, 2020. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

Translations

On the Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education (Über die Bestimmung des Weibes zur höhren Geistesbildung), by Amalia Holst. Oxford: Oxford University Press. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

Window into Chaos (Fenêtre sur le chaos), by Cornelius Castoriadis. Thesis Eleven 148(1), 2018, 77-88. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window​ -

Reviews

Kant, Race, and Racism, Huaping Lu-Adler. European Journal of Philosophy 32: 286-291. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

Tragedy, The Greeks, and Us, Simon Critchley. Philosophy Today 65(1), 2021, 211-215. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Coleridge and Contemplation, Peter Cheyne (ed.). British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27(1), 2019, 231-236. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

Kants Theorie der Biologie: Ein Kommentar. Eine Lesart. Eine historische Einordnung, Ina Goy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 26(3), 2018, 625-630. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

The Biopolitics of Lifestyle: Foucault, ethics and healthy choices, Christopher Mayes. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 14(1), 2017, 159-162. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

Hope Without Optimism, Terry Eagleton. Philosophy Today 60(4), 2016, 991-94. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window - DownloadLink opens in a new window -

Naturalism and Philosophical Anthropology, Phillip Honenberger (ed.). Phenomenological Reviews 2016, April. - WebsiteLink opens in a new window -

Public-facing work

Germany's Mary WollstonecraftLink opens in a new window. The Essay, BBC Radio 3

The Sorrows of Young WertherLink opens in a new window. Free Thinking, BBC Radio 3

Introducing New Generation Thinkers 2023Link opens in a new window. Free Thinking, BBC Radio 3.

Germany's Wollstonecraft: Amalia Holst, and how the German Enlightenment failed womenLink opens in a new window. Aeon.

What will humans evolve into?Link opens in a new window Philosophy by Postcard.

Contact details

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Email: andrew.j.cooper@warwick.ac.uk

Office hours: Mondays 5-6, Fridays 4-5. Email for appointment

Room: S2.41 Social Sciences Building

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