Thomas Hilgers

Thomas Hilgers is a research associate at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (the Academy of Fine Arts Düsseldorf) and at the Priority Program 1688, which is organized and funded by the German Research Foundation. He studied philosophy and film studies at the Free University Berlin and the University of Pennsylvania, and received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in December 2010. His main fields of research are aesthetics, philosophy of film, philosophy of technology, metaphysics, and the history of German philosophy since Kant. His book Aesthetic Disinterestedness: Art, Experience, and the Self was published by Routledge in 2017. Currently, he is working on a new book project. The objective of this project is to arrive at a temporal understanding of digital technologies.

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Philosophy of Film and Media Theory
• Philosophy of Technology
• Metaphysics (Theories of Subjectivity, Selfhood, and Freedom, Theories of Time)
• History of German Philosophy (especially Kant, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Adorno)

Selected Recent and Forthcoming Publications

• Aesthetic Disinterestedness: Art, Experience, and the Self. New York and London: Routledge, 2017.
• Perspective and Fiction. (German: Perspektive und Fiktion.) Ed. Thomas Hilgers and Gertrud Koch, Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2017.
• “Intentionality, Mediality, and Technology.“ (German: “Intentionalität, Medialität und Technik“). Online publication of the German Society for Media Studies, 2018.
• “Heroes, Freaks, and Dark Knights: Batman in Hollywood.“ (G: “Helden, Freaks und dunkle Ritter: Batman in Hollywood.“) In: Hollywood: In between Conformity and Critique of the Contemporary. (G: Hollywood: Zwischen Angepasstheit und kritischer Zeitgenossenschaft.) Ed. Sebastian Lederle et al., Bielefeld: transcript, forthcoming 2019.
• “Boredom.“ (G: “Langeweile.) In: Handbook of Aesthetic Times. (G: Wörterbuch der ästhetischen Eigenzeiten.) Ed. SPP 1688. Hanover: Werhahn Verlag, forthcoming 2019.

Contact
Dr. Thomas Hilgers
Philosophy 
Email: t.hilgers[at]berlin.bard.edu