Hi there!
I’m currently a Philosophy MA student at the University of Vienna.
My main interests lie in the philosophies of agency, action, reasons, and mind.
Before my MA, I did my BA in Philosophy and my BEd in English, Philosophy & Psychology, also at the University of Vienna.
I’m the current chairperson of the Vienna Forum for Analytic Philosophy.
I’m also a trained chef and waiter, so before studying I worked at various restaurants, bars, and cafés.
Feel free to reach out to me! I’m always happy to discuss philosophy, music, sci-fi books, and cooking: martin.niederl[at]univie.ac.at
About me
What I’m primarily intrigued by is how agents relate to and represent the reasons that inform their actions. The way I’m currently approaching this is by looking into theories of non-human animal agency and cognition. The idea is basically this: some animals clearly are agents, but actions are intricately related to reasons. So the challenge is to model both reasons and action in a way that allows beings with the cognitive capacity of animals like pigs and chimpanzees to count as agents proper.
I’ve tried to formulate a rough version of what this might look like in a paper I published in the Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Australasia some time ago. The point in that paper is to expand upon Hanjo Glock’s account of animal agency and argue for a way in which non-human animals may be able to possess the concept of a reason.
When I don’t do philosophy, I mainly play guitar and bass in various bands. I primarily do this with some of my best friends in Fritsch & the Jims, but I also play in Phil Luis’s live band, and occasionally help out my friends from Amanda.
Photo credits: Paul Tucek
