People

Professor Peter Dews

Emeritus Professor
School of Philosophy and Art History
Professor Peter Dews
  • Email

  • Location

    Colchester Campus

  • Academic support hours

    See office door

Profile

Biography

Peter Dews read English at Queens' College Cambridge, and took an MA in the sociology of literature at Essex, going on to gain a PhD in philosophy at Southampton University. Before coming to Essex, he taught at philosophy Middlesex University and European philosophy and literature at Anglia Ruskin University. He is author of Logics of Disintegration (1987, reissued in the Verso 'Radical Thinkers' series 2007), The Limits of Disenchantment (1995), and The Idea of Evil (2007); he has also edited Autonomy and Solidarity: Interviews with Jürgen Habermas (1986), and Habermas: A Critical Reader (1999), and co-edited (with Simon Critchley) Deconstructive Subjectivities (1997). He has been a Humboldt Fellow at the University of Tübingen, and has held visiting positions at the University of Konstanz, at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, at the Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research, at Columbia University, and in the Center for the Humanities, Grinnell College.

Qualifications

  • BA Cambridge

  • MA Essex

  • PhD Southampton

Research and professional activities

Research interests

Modernity and the problem of evil

Open to supervise

History of German philosophical romanticism and Idealism

Open to supervise

Hegel and the Left Hegelians

Open to supervise

The Frankfurt School and contemporary Critical Theory

Open to supervise

French philosophy from Sartre and Merleau-Ponty to the present

Open to supervise

Philosophy and psychoanalysis (especially Lacanian theory)

Open to supervise

Teaching and supervision

Previous supervision

Tobias Heinze
Tobias Heinze
Degree subject: Occasional Study: Philosophy (Research)
Degree type: Occasional Postgraduate Study
Awarded date: 15/1/2023
John-Baptiste Oduor
John-Baptiste Oduor
Thesis title: Habit as Freedom: The Pre-Social Formation of Agency in Hegel
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 15/7/2022
Robert Graham Seymour
Robert Graham Seymour
Thesis title: Negative and Positive Philosophy in the Late Work of Fichte and Schelling
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 2/3/2020
Samuel James Oliver
Samuel James Oliver
Thesis title: History and Ideality in Husseri, Derrida, and the Critical Theory Tradition
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 5/7/2019
Jakub Jacek Kowalewski
Jakub Jacek Kowalewski
Thesis title: The Phenomenology of Ethical Self-Awareness
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 25/3/2019
Pavel Reichl
Pavel Reichl
Thesis title: Heidegger's Late Marburg Project: Being, Entities, and Schematisation
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 6/7/2017
Giovanni Maria Mascaretti
Giovanni Maria Mascaretti
Thesis title: Adorno, Foucault, and the History of the Present
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 8/6/2017
Rosalba Mallardo
Rosalba Mallardo
Thesis title: Securing the Future of the Critical Project of Aufklarung
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 24/11/2016
John Michael Lumsden
John Michael Lumsden
Thesis title: At the Limit of the Concept: Logic and History in Hegel, Schelling and Adorno
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 27/4/2016
Jonathan William Chappell
Jonathan William Chappell
Thesis title: 'Ernest Gellner and the Ethical Defence of the Fact/Value Dichotomy'
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Master of Philosophy
Awarded date: 30/9/2015
Rebeca Perez Leon
Rebeca Perez Leon
Thesis title: The Politics of Our Relation to Language in Rorty and Derrida
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 2/6/2015
Nathan Fretwell
Nathan Fretwell
Thesis title: The Postanarchist Moment: Critical Reflections on the Encounter Between Anarchism and Poststructuralism
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 23/1/2015
Pavel Reichl
Pavel Reichl
Degree subject: Continental Philosophy
Degree type: Master of Arts
Awarded date: 30/11/2012
Mathijs Peters
Mathijs Peters
Thesis title: A Key to the World: Schopenhauer, Adorno and Merleau-Ponty on the Ethical and Metaphysical Dimensions of Corporeality
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 23/11/2012
Nathan Fretwell
Nathan Fretwell
Degree subject: Philosophy
Degree type: Master of Arts
Awarded date: 7/10/2009

Publications

Journal articles (18)

Dews, P., (2024). Schelling's Liberation of Reason from Itself: Response to Karen Ng and Markus Gabriel. Hegel Bulletin, 1-22

Dews, P., (2023). The Problem of Ethical Ideals in Hellenistic Philosophy and in Psychoanalysis. American Imago. 80 (3), 429-448

Dews, P., (2018). The idea of hope. New Left Review (112), 99-129

Dews, P., (2017). Schwerpunkt: Schelling zwischen Metaphysik und Erfahrung der Freiheit. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie. 65 (2), 206-210

Dews, P., (2017). Theoriekonstruktion und existenzielle Beschreibung in Schellings Freiheitsschrift. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie. 65 (2), 239-266

Dews, P., (2017). A forum for philosophical imagination and social critique. Philosophy & Social Criticism. 43 (3), 250-251

Dews, P., (2017). Theory Construction and Existential Description in Schelling's Treatise on Freedom. British Journal for the History of Philosophy. 25 (1), 157-178

Dews, P., (2014). Dialectics and the Transcendence of Dialectics: Adorno's Relation to Schelling. British Journal for the History of Philosophy. 22 (6), 1180-1207

Dews, P., (2014). Nietzsche for Losers?. New Left Review. 86 (2), 209-230

Dews, P., (2008). Intersubjectivity and the “Space of Reasons”: Fichte in the post-analytic context. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal. 29 (1), 113-159

Dews, P., (2008). Review of Alain Badiou, Being and Event. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Dews, P., (2002). Imagination and the Symbolic:Castoriadis and Lacan. Constellations. 9 (4), 516-521

Dews, P., (1999). The eclipse of coincidence: Lacan, Merleau‐Ponty and Schelling. Angelaki. 4 (3), 15-23

Dews, P., (1996). Law, Solidarity and the Tasks of Philosophy. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory. 43 (88), 107-127

DEWS, P., (1993). Faktizität, Geltung und Öffentlichkeit. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie. 41 (2), 359-364

Dews, P., (1992). Foucault and the French tradition of historical epistemology. History of European Ideas. 14 (3), 347-363

Dews, P., (1990). Hegel in Analysis: Slavoj Zizek's Lacanian Dialectics. Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain. 11 (1-2), 1-8

Dews, P., (1979). The Nouvelle Philosophie and Foucault. Economy and Society. 8 (2), 127-171

Books (3)

Dews, P., (2023). Schelling's Late Philosophy in Confrontation with Hegel. Oxford University Press. 0190069120. 9780190069124

Dews, P., (2008). The Idea of Evil. John Wiley And Sons Ltd. 9781405117043

Dews, P., (1995). The Limits of Disenchantment: Essays on Contemporary European Philosophy. Verso. 9781859840221

Book chapters (19)

Dews, P., (2019). Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling. In: The Cambridge Habermas Lexicon. 674- 676

Dews, P., (2018). Schelling and the Frankfurt School. In: The Routledge Companion to the Frankfurt School. Editors: Gordon, P., Hammer, E. and Honneth, A., . Routledge. 394- 409. 9781138333246

Dews, P., (2017). The Configuration of the Ethical Demand in Løgstrup and Levinas. In: What is Ethically Demanded? K. E. Løgstrup's Philosophy of Moral Life. Editors: Fink, H. and Stern, R., . Notre Dame University Press. 102- 129. 978-0-268-10185-5

Dews, P., (2013). The nouvelle philosophie and foucault. In: Towards a critique of Foucault: Foucault, Lacan and the question of ethics. 61- 105

Dews, P., (2010). Gunnar Hindrichs, Das Absolute und das Subjekt. Untersuchungen zum Verh�ltnis von Metaphysik und Nachmetaphysik. In: in Internationales Jahrbuch des Deutschen Idealismus (2009) / International Yearbook of German Idealism (2009). Editors: Stolzenberg, J., Rush, F., Ameriks, KP. and Franks, P., . De Gruyter. 283- 288. 978-3-11-020878-8

Dews, P., (2010). L?�volution de la doctrine kantienne des postulats de la raison pratique dans La destination de l?homme et dans la Freiheitschrift de Schelling. In: Fichte-Schelling:Lectures crois�es. Editors: Goddard, C. and H�hn, L., . Ergon-Verlag

Dews, P., (2010). Nature and Subjectivity. Fichte?s Role in the Pippin/McDowell Debate in the Light of his neo-Kantian Reception. In: Wissen, Freiheit, Geschichte. Die Philosophie Fichtes im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert.. Editors: Stolzenberg, J. and Rudolph, O., . Rodopi. 235- 250. 978-90-420-2758-9

Dews, P., (2010). "The infinite is losing its charm": Richard Rorty's philosophy of religion and the conflict between therapeutic and pragmatic critique. In: The Philosophy of Richard Rorty. Editors: Auxier, RE. and Hahn, LE., . Open Court. 9780812696417

(2010). Exceedingly Nietzsche. In: Exceedingly Nietzsche: Aspects of Contemporary Nietzsche Interpretation. Editors: Krell, DF. and Wood, D., . Routledge. 111- 119

Dews, P., (2009). The Intolerability of Meaning: Myth, Faith, and Reason in Philosophical Responses to Moral Atrocity. In: The Religious in Responses to Mass Atrocity: Interdisciplinary Persepectives. Editors: Brudholm, T. and Cushman, T., . Cambridge University Press. 60- 76. 9780521518857

Dews, P., (2008). O problema do mal após Freud. In: A filosofia ap�s Freud. Editors: Safatle, V. and Manzi, R., . Editora Humanitas. 15- 32. 9788577320967

Dews, P., (2006). Postmodernism: pathologies of modernity from Nietzsche to the post-structuralists. In: The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought. Editors: Ball, T. and Bellamy, R., . Cambridge University Press. 343- 467. 9780521691628

Dews, P., (2005). Disenchantment and the persistence of evil : Habermas, Jonas, Badiou. In: Modernity and the Problem of Evil. Editors: Schrift, A., . Indiana University Press. 51- 65. 9780253217585

Dews, P., (2005). The eclipse of coincidence: Lacan, merleau-Ponty and Zizek's misreading of Schelling. In: Traversing the Fantasy: Critical Responses to Slavoj Zizek. Editors: Boucher, S., Glynos, J. and Sharpe, M., . Ashgate. 197- 215. 9780815398608

Dews, P., (2004). States of Grace: The Excess of the Demand in Badiou's Ethics of Truths. In: Think Again: Alain Badiou and the Future of Philosophy. Editors: Hallward, P., . Bloomsbury. 106- 119. 9781441134882

Dews, P., (2002). Law, Solidarity and the Tasks of Philosophy. In: Discourse and Democracy - Essays on Habermas's Between Facts and Norms. Editors: von Schomberg, R. and Baynes, K., . State University of New York Press. 978-0-7914-5497-8

Dews, P., (2001). A Question of Grounding: Reconstruction and Strict Reflexion in Habermas and Apel. In: Critical Theory - Current State and Future Prospects. Editors: Hohendahl, P. and Fisher, J., . Berghahn Books. 205- 228. 978-1-57181-235-3

Dews, P., (2001). "Radical Finitude" and the Problem of Evil: Critical Comments on Wellmer's Reading of Jonas. In: Rethinking Evil - Contemporary Perspectives. Editors: Lara, MP., . University of California Press. 46- 52. 9780520226340

Dews, P., (1993). The Crisis of Oedipal Identity: Between Lacan and the Frankfurt School. In: Enlightenments: Encounters between Critical Theory and Contemporary French Thought. Editors: Kunneman, H. and de Vries, H., . Kok Pharos Pub. House. 9789039000410

Conferences (1)

Dews, P., (2014). Nietzsche for losers?

Contact

peted@essex.ac.uk

Location:

Colchester Campus

Academic support hours:

See office door