Dermot Moran
I am currently the inaugural holder of the Joseph Chair in Catholic Philosophy at Boston College. Previously, until retirement, I held a full Professorship of Philosophy, the National University of Ireland statutory Chair of Philosophy (Metaphysics & Logic), at University College Dublin. Since 1993 I have been an elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy. I have held visiting positions at Yale University (1987), Connecticut College (1992-3), Rice University (Fall 2003, Spring 2006), Northwestern University (2007), Trinity College Dublin (ongoing), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Summer 2010. I was Sir Walter Murdoch Professor in the Humanities, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia (2013-2016). In Spring 2015 I was the Hans-Georg Gadamer Visiting Professor in Boston College.
At University College Dublin I have served as Head of the Department of Philosophy for three periods: 1989-92; 1993-6; and 1999-2001.
I am currently serving in my secod term an elected member of the UCD Governing Authority (2009-2014; 2014-2018), responsbile for the overall governance of the university. I also serve on several University College Dublin committees including the Research Ethics Committee (REC, see http://www.ucd.ie/researchethics/rec.html), which oversees all research in the university. I am chairperson of the Working Group on Regenerative Medicine examining the ethical questions around the use of human embryonic stem cells in research. We have just produced a new report (June 2011) on human embryonic stem cells (hESC).
I recently served as a member of the UCD Selection Committee charged with appointing the incoming President of University College Dublin, Professor Andrew Deeks.
I am currently President/Chairperson of FISP (International Federation of Philosophy Societies) elected at the FISP General Assembly in Athens, for the period 2013-2018. I am responsible for the XXIV World Congress of Philosophy to take place in Beijing in 2018. I was previously President of the Programme Committee of FISP, responsible for the academic programme for the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy held in Athens from 4-10 August 2013. I am also the current President of the Irish Phenomenological Circle.
Born in Dublin in the suburb of Stillorgan, I was educated at Oatlands College Primary and Secondary Schools, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin, run by the Christian Brothers. I completed the Leaving Certificate examination and entered University College Dublin (in 1970) on a UCD Entrance Scholarship to study Arts. I graduated in September 1973 with a BA Double First Class Honours Degree in English and Philosophy. As a recipient of the Wilmarth Lewis-Farmington Scholarship to Yale University, I went to Yale for graduate study in September 1973. I graduated from Yale University with MA (1974), MPhil (1976) and PhD (1986) degrees in Philosophy. My dissertation supervisor was Professor Karsten Harries and my thesis was entitled ‘Nature and Mind in the Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena’ (subsequently published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press.
While at Yale (from 1974-1978) I was a Teaching Assistant in Philosophy and also taught a College Seminar at Ezra Stiles College. I was Teaching Assistant for Professor George Schrader (‘Persons, Roles and Social Structures’, 1974 and ‘Political Philosophy’, 1977); Karsten Harries (‘Philosophy of Existence’, 1975); Edward Casey (‘Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis’, 1976); Harry Frankfurt (‘Introduction to Modern Philosophy’, 1976) and Robert Brumbaugh (‘Ethics of Classical Greece’, ‘Philosophy of Space and Time’, 1978). I also taught at College Seminar on James Joyce in 1976 at Yale.
In 1979 I returned to Ireland to lecture at Queen’s University Belfast (1979-82) in the Department of Scholastic Philosophy, under the late Rev. Professor James McEvoy, primarily teaching medieval philosophy and contemporary European philosophy. In 1982 I moved to a permanent lectureship in the Department of Philosophy at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, then a Recognised College of the National University of Ireland (1982-89), and now a full constituent university of the National University of Ireland and known as NUIM.
In 1989 I was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy in University College Dublin, appointed by the Senate of the National University of Ireland.
Supervisors: Karsten Harries (Yale University) and Louis Dupré (Yale University)
Phone: +353 1 716 8123
Address: School of Philosophy,
University College Dublin,
Dublin 4,
Ireland
At University College Dublin I have served as Head of the Department of Philosophy for three periods: 1989-92; 1993-6; and 1999-2001.
I am currently serving in my secod term an elected member of the UCD Governing Authority (2009-2014; 2014-2018), responsbile for the overall governance of the university. I also serve on several University College Dublin committees including the Research Ethics Committee (REC, see http://www.ucd.ie/researchethics/rec.html), which oversees all research in the university. I am chairperson of the Working Group on Regenerative Medicine examining the ethical questions around the use of human embryonic stem cells in research. We have just produced a new report (June 2011) on human embryonic stem cells (hESC).
I recently served as a member of the UCD Selection Committee charged with appointing the incoming President of University College Dublin, Professor Andrew Deeks.
I am currently President/Chairperson of FISP (International Federation of Philosophy Societies) elected at the FISP General Assembly in Athens, for the period 2013-2018. I am responsible for the XXIV World Congress of Philosophy to take place in Beijing in 2018. I was previously President of the Programme Committee of FISP, responsible for the academic programme for the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy held in Athens from 4-10 August 2013. I am also the current President of the Irish Phenomenological Circle.
Born in Dublin in the suburb of Stillorgan, I was educated at Oatlands College Primary and Secondary Schools, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin, run by the Christian Brothers. I completed the Leaving Certificate examination and entered University College Dublin (in 1970) on a UCD Entrance Scholarship to study Arts. I graduated in September 1973 with a BA Double First Class Honours Degree in English and Philosophy. As a recipient of the Wilmarth Lewis-Farmington Scholarship to Yale University, I went to Yale for graduate study in September 1973. I graduated from Yale University with MA (1974), MPhil (1976) and PhD (1986) degrees in Philosophy. My dissertation supervisor was Professor Karsten Harries and my thesis was entitled ‘Nature and Mind in the Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena’ (subsequently published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press.
While at Yale (from 1974-1978) I was a Teaching Assistant in Philosophy and also taught a College Seminar at Ezra Stiles College. I was Teaching Assistant for Professor George Schrader (‘Persons, Roles and Social Structures’, 1974 and ‘Political Philosophy’, 1977); Karsten Harries (‘Philosophy of Existence’, 1975); Edward Casey (‘Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis’, 1976); Harry Frankfurt (‘Introduction to Modern Philosophy’, 1976) and Robert Brumbaugh (‘Ethics of Classical Greece’, ‘Philosophy of Space and Time’, 1978). I also taught at College Seminar on James Joyce in 1976 at Yale.
In 1979 I returned to Ireland to lecture at Queen’s University Belfast (1979-82) in the Department of Scholastic Philosophy, under the late Rev. Professor James McEvoy, primarily teaching medieval philosophy and contemporary European philosophy. In 1982 I moved to a permanent lectureship in the Department of Philosophy at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, then a Recognised College of the National University of Ireland (1982-89), and now a full constituent university of the National University of Ireland and known as NUIM.
In 1989 I was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy in University College Dublin, appointed by the Senate of the National University of Ireland.
Supervisors: Karsten Harries (Yale University) and Louis Dupré (Yale University)
Phone: +353 1 716 8123
Address: School of Philosophy,
University College Dublin,
Dublin 4,
Ireland
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Books by Dermot Moran
‘The Routledge Companion to Twentieth Century Philosophy sets itself the Herculean task of surveying the philosophy of a whole century which saw the rise and fall of many powerful philosophical movements, movements which were themselves inspired by such giants as Carnap, Dewey, Husserl, Sartre and Wittgenstein, and of doing justice to those movements and those giants, without being either uncritically bland or inappropriately partisan, and, marvelous to relate, it succeeds. This will be a wonderful introduction to philosophy for the student and an indispensable addition to the library of the teacher of philosophy.’ – Hilary Putnam, Harvard University, USA
'It is hard to imagine a more useful, comprehensive or distinguished collection of essays on Western philosophy in the twentieth century. For anyone looking for an authoritative overview of the current state of the subject and its recent history this is where to find it.' – Quassim Cassam, University of Cambridge, UK
'Philosophy is reflectively self-conscious. Distinctive among departments of thought, it absorbs its own meta-discipline. This outstanding volume is meta-philosophy of a high order: a welcome, expert review of the course of our discipline in the century just ended.' – Ernest Sosa, Rutgers University, USA
by
Stephen Mulhall
Times Higher Education Supplement
Published: 7th April 2006
Tangled roots of original thoughts
Title: Husserl: Founder of Phenomenology
Author: Dermot Moran
Reviewer: Stephen Mulhall
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0 7456 2121 X and 2122 8
Pages: 283
Price: £55.00 and £15.99
In recent years in Anglo-American philosophy, Husserl has begun to be taken far more seriously as a systematic thinker in his own right.
Previously, he tended to be viewed through the eyes of those he taught and otherwise influenced - particularly Heidegger, but also Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida. And, since their way of inheriting the phenomenological tradition took the form of radical critiques of its founder, Husserl himself tended to disappear beneath a range of distinctly unflattering portraits.
Now, however, analytically informed philosophers have begun to explore more systematically the real structure and development of Husserl's thinking in its own terms - no easy task, given the sheer volume of his writings and the continuously evolving, sometime highly self-critical nature of his philosophical project. And he is emerging as a far more sophisticated and self-aware thinker than his phenomenological successors tended to suggest, even with respect to the very issues on which they concentrated their critical fire.
Dermot Moran's new book is an outstanding example of this process of intellectual recovery. It offers an overarching introductory account of the basic themes and key developmental phases of Husserl's thought, giving a clear picture of its intellectual roots in Cartesian and (most importantly) Kantian philosophy, and emphasising its anticipations of insights that are often attributed to later phenomenologists, and held to constitute breaks with Husserlian assumptions. Moran's chapter on Husserl's sensitivity to the intersubjective dimensions of human existence, and his persistent struggles to reconcile this with his conception of the transcendental ego as absolute source of the world, is exemplary in this respect. Equally valuable is a substantial early chapter on Husserl's treatment of mathematics and logic, where he engages productively with Frege and sets the agenda for much of his later work. Moran also stresses the admirable depth of Husserl's commitment to philosophy, understood as the discipline in which the human commitment to a life of reason finds its fullest expression, in the face of the seductiveness of superstition and scientism.
This book would be a very useful guide for advanced undergraduates and graduates who are trying to find their feet with this protean figure and are understandably bewildered by his often opaque and jargon-ridden texts. It is by no means an easy read, but it is accurate, rigorous and critical where criticism is due. And it makes a good case for seeing Husserl's thought as having real contemporary relevance.
Stephen Mulhall is fellow and tutor in philosophy, New College, Oxford.
Reviews: Stephen Mulhall, ‘Tangled Roots of Original Thoughts,’ Times Higher Education Supplement, (7thMay 2006). Javier Carreño, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, Vol. 68 no. 4 (2006), pp. 813-814. Christian Lotz, Teaching Philosophy, vol. 29 no. 4 (December 2006), pp. 373-376. Nicolas de Warren, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly vol. 81 no. 4 (Fall, 2007), pp. 681-685. Guillaume Fréchette, British Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 15 no. 4 (Nov 2007), pp. 825-828. Robert Dostal, Husserl Studies Vol. 24 No. 1 (April, 2008), pp. 59-63. (Springer: http://www.springerlink.com/content/n610vj8183305511/fulltext.pdf) John Brough, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume 16 No 1 (Feb. 2008), pp. 101 –106. Julia Jansen, ‘Introducing the one Husserl: Moran’s Synthetic Reading’, Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society (2008), pp. 164-170.
1. Times Literary Supplement, no. 5123 (8th June 2001), p. 34 (David Bell)
2. ‘Current Approaches to Phenomenology,’ Inquiry Vol. 44 No. 1 (March 2001), pp. 101-24 (Paul S. Macdonald)
3. ‘Is There a Phenomenological Research Program?’ Synthese 131 (2002), pp. 419-444 (Steven Crowell)
4. Review of Metaphysics Vol. LV no. 1, issue no. 217 (Sept. 2001), pp. 150-151 (Andrew Lamb)
5. Journal of British Society of Phenomenology Vol. 32 No. 1 (Jan. 2001), pp. 106-109 (William S. Hamrick)
6. Journal Phänomenologie 13 (2000), pp. 78-9 (Sebastian Luft)
7. Journal of Consciousness Studies Vol. 7 No. 10 (2000), pp. 69-74 (John Dance)
8. Tijdschrift voor FilosofieNo 4 (2000), pp. 772-3 (Philipp Rosemann)
9. Manuscrito Vol. XXIII (2), Special Husserl Issue (2000) (Allen Casebier)
10. The Irish Times, Saturday, 11 March 2000 (Tony O’Connor)
11. Mind Issue 438 April 2001(Simon Glendinning)
12. Philosophical Quarterly, (Oct. 2002), pp. 649-51. (Paul Gorner)
13. ‘Gnomic Truth: A Review Article,’ Milltown Studies 47 (2001), pp. 96-105 (Tom Wilson)
14. ‘The Many Faces of Phenomenology A Critical Notice of Introduction to Phenomenology by Dermot Moran’, International Journal of Philosophical Studies Vol. 11 No. 1 (March 2003), pp. 93-100 (Tom Rockmore)
15. Thesis Eleven Vol. 69 No. 1 (May 2002), pp. 99-126 (Andrew Dawson)
16. Psychologist-Psychoanalyst, Vol. 24, No. 4, Fall 2004 (Robert Stolorow)
Awarded Edward Goodwin Ballard Prize in Phenomenology (2001) “for the best book in phenomenology from the previous three years”, sponsored by Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology.
Translation into Turkish planned.
Translation into Simplified Chinese in progress Professor Li Youzheng.
‘The Routledge Companion to Twentieth Century Philosophy sets itself the Herculean task of surveying the philosophy of a whole century which saw the rise and fall of many powerful philosophical movements, movements which were themselves inspired by such giants as Carnap, Dewey, Husserl, Sartre and Wittgenstein, and of doing justice to those movements and those giants, without being either uncritically bland or inappropriately partisan, and, marvelous to relate, it succeeds. This will be a wonderful introduction to philosophy for the student and an indispensable addition to the library of the teacher of philosophy.’ – Hilary Putnam, Harvard University, USA
'It is hard to imagine a more useful, comprehensive or distinguished collection of essays on Western philosophy in the twentieth century. For anyone looking for an authoritative overview of the current state of the subject and its recent history this is where to find it.' – Quassim Cassam, University of Cambridge, UK
'Philosophy is reflectively self-conscious. Distinctive among departments of thought, it absorbs its own meta-discipline. This outstanding volume is meta-philosophy of a high order: a welcome, expert review of the course of our discipline in the century just ended.' – Ernest Sosa, Rutgers University, USA
by
Stephen Mulhall
Times Higher Education Supplement
Published: 7th April 2006
Tangled roots of original thoughts
Title: Husserl: Founder of Phenomenology
Author: Dermot Moran
Reviewer: Stephen Mulhall
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0 7456 2121 X and 2122 8
Pages: 283
Price: £55.00 and £15.99
In recent years in Anglo-American philosophy, Husserl has begun to be taken far more seriously as a systematic thinker in his own right.
Previously, he tended to be viewed through the eyes of those he taught and otherwise influenced - particularly Heidegger, but also Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida. And, since their way of inheriting the phenomenological tradition took the form of radical critiques of its founder, Husserl himself tended to disappear beneath a range of distinctly unflattering portraits.
Now, however, analytically informed philosophers have begun to explore more systematically the real structure and development of Husserl's thinking in its own terms - no easy task, given the sheer volume of his writings and the continuously evolving, sometime highly self-critical nature of his philosophical project. And he is emerging as a far more sophisticated and self-aware thinker than his phenomenological successors tended to suggest, even with respect to the very issues on which they concentrated their critical fire.
Dermot Moran's new book is an outstanding example of this process of intellectual recovery. It offers an overarching introductory account of the basic themes and key developmental phases of Husserl's thought, giving a clear picture of its intellectual roots in Cartesian and (most importantly) Kantian philosophy, and emphasising its anticipations of insights that are often attributed to later phenomenologists, and held to constitute breaks with Husserlian assumptions. Moran's chapter on Husserl's sensitivity to the intersubjective dimensions of human existence, and his persistent struggles to reconcile this with his conception of the transcendental ego as absolute source of the world, is exemplary in this respect. Equally valuable is a substantial early chapter on Husserl's treatment of mathematics and logic, where he engages productively with Frege and sets the agenda for much of his later work. Moran also stresses the admirable depth of Husserl's commitment to philosophy, understood as the discipline in which the human commitment to a life of reason finds its fullest expression, in the face of the seductiveness of superstition and scientism.
This book would be a very useful guide for advanced undergraduates and graduates who are trying to find their feet with this protean figure and are understandably bewildered by his often opaque and jargon-ridden texts. It is by no means an easy read, but it is accurate, rigorous and critical where criticism is due. And it makes a good case for seeing Husserl's thought as having real contemporary relevance.
Stephen Mulhall is fellow and tutor in philosophy, New College, Oxford.
Reviews: Stephen Mulhall, ‘Tangled Roots of Original Thoughts,’ Times Higher Education Supplement, (7thMay 2006). Javier Carreño, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, Vol. 68 no. 4 (2006), pp. 813-814. Christian Lotz, Teaching Philosophy, vol. 29 no. 4 (December 2006), pp. 373-376. Nicolas de Warren, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly vol. 81 no. 4 (Fall, 2007), pp. 681-685. Guillaume Fréchette, British Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 15 no. 4 (Nov 2007), pp. 825-828. Robert Dostal, Husserl Studies Vol. 24 No. 1 (April, 2008), pp. 59-63. (Springer: http://www.springerlink.com/content/n610vj8183305511/fulltext.pdf) John Brough, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume 16 No 1 (Feb. 2008), pp. 101 –106. Julia Jansen, ‘Introducing the one Husserl: Moran’s Synthetic Reading’, Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society (2008), pp. 164-170.
1. Times Literary Supplement, no. 5123 (8th June 2001), p. 34 (David Bell)
2. ‘Current Approaches to Phenomenology,’ Inquiry Vol. 44 No. 1 (March 2001), pp. 101-24 (Paul S. Macdonald)
3. ‘Is There a Phenomenological Research Program?’ Synthese 131 (2002), pp. 419-444 (Steven Crowell)
4. Review of Metaphysics Vol. LV no. 1, issue no. 217 (Sept. 2001), pp. 150-151 (Andrew Lamb)
5. Journal of British Society of Phenomenology Vol. 32 No. 1 (Jan. 2001), pp. 106-109 (William S. Hamrick)
6. Journal Phänomenologie 13 (2000), pp. 78-9 (Sebastian Luft)
7. Journal of Consciousness Studies Vol. 7 No. 10 (2000), pp. 69-74 (John Dance)
8. Tijdschrift voor FilosofieNo 4 (2000), pp. 772-3 (Philipp Rosemann)
9. Manuscrito Vol. XXIII (2), Special Husserl Issue (2000) (Allen Casebier)
10. The Irish Times, Saturday, 11 March 2000 (Tony O’Connor)
11. Mind Issue 438 April 2001(Simon Glendinning)
12. Philosophical Quarterly, (Oct. 2002), pp. 649-51. (Paul Gorner)
13. ‘Gnomic Truth: A Review Article,’ Milltown Studies 47 (2001), pp. 96-105 (Tom Wilson)
14. ‘The Many Faces of Phenomenology A Critical Notice of Introduction to Phenomenology by Dermot Moran’, International Journal of Philosophical Studies Vol. 11 No. 1 (March 2003), pp. 93-100 (Tom Rockmore)
15. Thesis Eleven Vol. 69 No. 1 (May 2002), pp. 99-126 (Andrew Dawson)
16. Psychologist-Psychoanalyst, Vol. 24, No. 4, Fall 2004 (Robert Stolorow)
Awarded Edward Goodwin Ballard Prize in Phenomenology (2001) “for the best book in phenomenology from the previous three years”, sponsored by Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology.
Translation into Turkish planned.
Translation into Simplified Chinese in progress Professor Li Youzheng.
impact on the philosophical formation of Paul Ricoeur. One could truly say, paraphrasing Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s brilliant 1959 essay “The
Philosopher and his Shadow,” that Husserl is the philosopher in whose
shadow Ricoeur, like Merleau-Ponty, also stands, the thinker to whom he
constantly returns. Husserl is Ricoeur’s philosopher of reflection, par
excellence. Indeed, Ricoeur always invokes Husserl when he is discussing a paradigmatic instance of contemporary philosophy of “reflection” and also of descriptive, “eidetic” phenomenology. Indeed, I shall argue in this chapter that Husserl’s influence on Ricoeur was decisive and provided a methodology which is permanently in play, even when it has to be concretized and mediated by hermeneutics, as Ricoeur proposes after 1960.
This is a draft document. Please do not quote without permission. See the published version in Moran, Dermot. (D. 莫兰), 一个论及‘无’的西方思想家:约翰.司各脱.爱留根那 , “A Western Thinker of Nothingness: John Scottus Eriugena,” translated into Chinese by 刘素民, Prof. Liu Sumin, 世界哲学, World Philosophy Vol. 6 (2016), pp. 52–57.
Phenomenology focuses especially on intuitively apprehended, embodied, skillful behavior. Husserl’s mature phenomenology, greatly elaborated on by the French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty (who himself was trained in empirical and Gestalt psychology), specifically focuses on this pre-reflective, pre-predicative level of human experience. Philosophy of mind tended to ignore embodiment completely and now that has changed there is increasing interest in the phenomenological contribution.