Faculty Name:Jon K. Burmeister, PhD

Areas of Interest

• German idealism
• Existentialism
• Philosophy of technology
• Social and political philosophy
• History of western philosophy

Grants and Award

Principle Investigator, NEH “Enduring Questions” Grant, for the project “What is the Meaning of Work and Leisure?” at Boston College, 2016-2018. National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C. workandleisure.org

Stipend Recipient, Second Annual International Summer School in German Philosophy, Universität Bonn, “The Philosophical Relevance of Hegel’s Subjective Logic,” July 4-15, 2011

DAAD Yearlong Research Grant, October 2008 through July 2009, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, in Freiburg, Germany

Publications

Books

Co-editor with Mark Sentesy, On Language: Analytic, Continental, and Historical Contributions, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. Includes essays by Geoffrey Bennington and Jaakko Hintikka.

Articles, Published and Forthcoming

• We Can Automate Work.  Can We Automate Meaning?” in The Philosopher’s Magazine, Issue 81, 2018.
• “Hollywood Love and Liberal Arts Love in Plato’s Symposium,” in Selected Proceedings of the 21^st Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, forthcoming 2018.
• “Hegel’s Living Logic,” in Research in Phenomenology, Volume 43.2, 2013, pg. 243-264.

Book Reviews

• Review of The Actual and the Rational: Hegel and Objective Spirit, by Jean-François Kervégan.  International Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 2, Issue 234 (June 2019).
• “Re-Placing Hume.” Review of David Hume: Platonic Philosopher, Continental Ancestor, by Bernard Freydberg. Research in Phenomenology, Volume 45.1, 2015, pg. 161-167.
• “Getting to the Matter of Language.” Review of Die Sprache der Philosophie, by Damir Barbarić. Research in Phenomenology, Volume 42.1, 2012, pg. 138-147.

Conferences Organized

• Organizer of the interdisciplinary, NEH-funded conference “The Liberal Arts and the Future of Work and Leisure,” Boston College, taking place April 5, 2018. View here
• Organizer of the interdisciplinary, NEH-funded conference “The Future of Work in the Age of Automation,” Boston College, February 27, 2017. View here  
  
• Organizer of the international conference “Encountering Hegel,” Boston College, March 16-17, 2007.
• Organizer of the conference “On Language: Analytic, Continental, and Historical Perspectives,” Boston College, April 7-8, 2006.

Courses Taught

• PHIL 100 and 200 courses: Philosophy of Love and Desire; The Individual and the Political: What is it to be Free?; Perspectives on Western Culture (12-credit course in philosophy and religion); Ethics and the Good Life; Philosophy of Human Nature
• PHIL 300 course: What is the Meaning of Work and Leisure? View here
• PHIL 400 course: 19th and 20th c. Existentialism

Presentations

• Invited Speaker, “The Future of Meaningful Work: What Will A.I.’s Impact Be?”  Presented at the conference “Grappling with the Futures,” Harvard University/Boston University, April 29-30, 2018.
• Presenter and Moderator on the panel “A.I. and the Internet of Things,” at the conference “Algorithms, Ethics, and Accountability,” Boston University, March 16, 2018.
• Respondent and Moderator on the panel “Sittlichkeit: For and Against,” at the conference “Kant and the Possibility of Progress,” Boston College, February 16-17, 2018.
• “A Cybernetic Blur: Hannah Arendt on Work, Automation, and Human Meaning.”  Presented at Dr. Juliet Floyd’s graduate seminar “Analytic Philosophy: Machines and Us,” Boston University, November 6, 2017.
• “Hannah Arendt on Speech and Action: What No Person (or Computer) Can Do for You.”  Presented at the Association for Core Texts and Courses annual conference, Dallas, TX, April 22, 2017.
• “What is Left to Contingency: Hegel’s Philosophical Minimalism.”  Presented at The Metaphysical Society of America’s 68th Annual Meeting, “The Metaphysics of Contingency: East and West,” Cambridge, MA, April 1, 2017.
• “Spiritual Exercises in Seneca and Ignatius: From Concepts to Practice to Phantom Buzzes.” Presented at the Perspectives Program Annual Workshop, Boston College, May 20, 2016.
• “Virtual Reality: Future Benefits, Future Risks.” Presented at the Boston College Philosophical Society, February 22, 2016.
• “Nietzsche and Amor Fati: The Will of Fate and the Will to Create.” Presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Atlanta, GA, October 10, 2015.
• “Liberal Arts Love in Plato’s Symposium.” Presented at the ACTC annual conference.  Conference Theme: “The Arts and Sciences of a Core Text Education:  What Are They and Why Do We Need Them?” Plymouth, MA, April 9-11, 2015.
• “Hegel and Quine on Analytic Statements and Semantic Holism.” Presented at the conference “Hegel, Analytic Philosophy, and Formal Logic,” Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, October 17, 2014.
• “Hegel on Active and Passive Modes of Comprehension.” Presented at the conference “Passivity and Human Experience,” McGill University, April 5, 2013.
• “A Critique of Ground as a Rethinking of Ontology in the Science of Logic.” Presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Philadelphia, PA, October 19-22, 2011.
• “Language as Divine Reversal.” Presented at the Ontario Hegel Organization Annual Meeting, University of Ottawa, April 2, 2011.
• Translations (From German to English)
  Damir Barbaric, “The Look from Beyond: On Paul Klee’s View of Art,” in Paul Klee and Philosophical Vision: From Nature to Art. Edited by John Sallis. Boston: McMullen Museum of Art, 2012.
• Heinrich Rickert, “Knowing and Cognizing: Critical Remarks on Theoretical Intuitionism,” in The Neo-Kantian Reader: An Anthology of Key Texts. Edited by Sebastian Luft. New York/London: Routledge, 2012.
• Sebastian Luft, “Some Basic Problems in Husserl’s Unpublished Late Texts on the Phenomenological Reduction,” in Subjectivity and Lifeworld in Transcendental Phenomenology, a collection by Sebastian Luft. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, Press, 2011.

Memberships

• Hegel Society of America
• Metaphysical Society of America
• Association for Core Texts and Courses