Søren Gosvig Olesen (born 1956) is an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

and has written extensively in the tradition of

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...

as well as translating several philosophers central to this tradition:

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

and

Giorgio Agamben Giorgio Agamben ( ; ; born 22 April 1942) is an Italian philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception, form-of-life (borrowed from Ludwig Wittgenstein) and '' homo sacer''. The concept of biopolitic ...

. Olesen is a graduate from Université de Paris I-Sorbonne, and defended his doctorate with ''Wissen und Phänomen'' (1997) from Université de Nice. Olesen has notably advanced the notion of transcendental history.

Transcendental History

In his book ''Transcendental History'' (2013), Olesen addresses the two-fold question of what makes history possible and how history conditions human existence and

knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

. The concept of history in this sense encompasses something else and something more than what we are used to from everyday speech, and it also differs in this way from what one encounters as 'history' in the scientific discipline of history. In his book, Olesen gives an exposition of and a defense for the view, that historicality is the pivotal condition for human knowledge and existence. Something is historical under its mode of appearance, which has human existence as a transcendental condition. But on the other hand, what makes history possible is human existence. In this way,

history of philosophy The history of philosophy is the systematic study of the development of philosophical thought. It focuses on philosophy as rational inquiry based on argumentation, but some theorists also include myth, religious traditions, and proverbial lor ...

and

philosophy of history Philosophy of history is the philosophy, philosophical study of history and its academic discipline, discipline. The term was coined by the French philosopher Voltaire. In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between the ''specul ...

become inseparable. History first became a problem for philosophy when philosophy became aware of itself as historically situated and contingent. Even the concept of

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...

, whose timelessness and unchanging nature were assumed in premodern philosophy, becomes temporal and thereby also historical and thus has history as a transcendental condition.''Transcendental History'' (2013), p. 113. The thesis central to ''Transcendental History'' is: It is not the subject or consciousness which is the transcendental condition of knowledge, but rather history. And history is furthermore the transcendental condition for the subject and consciousness. Transcendental history as a philosophical enterprise thus becomes both

metaphilosophy Metaphilosophy, sometimes called the philosophy of philosophy, is "the investigation of the nature of philosophy". Its subject matter includes the aims of philosophy, the boundaries of philosophy, and its methods. Thus, while philosophy character ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

and philosophy of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...

Selected works

While most of Olesen's work has been in Danish and is therefore exclusive to a Danish audience, international publishers have also published works written in French, German, Italian, and English. * ''La philosophie dans le texte'' (1982) Trans-Europ-Repress * ''Wissen und Phänomen'' (1997) Königshausen & Neumann * ''Transcendental historie'' (2000) Museum Tusculanum * ''Breve storia del soggetto'' (2011) Udine, in the series: ''L'occhio e lo spirito ''no. 42 * ''Transcendentale Geschichte'' (2012) Mohr Siebeck * ''Transcendental History ''(2013) Palgrave Macmillan

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olesen, Soren Gosvig 1956 births Living people Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen 20th-century Danish translators 21st-century Danish translators 21st-century Danish philosophers