Biography

I am a DPhil candidate in the Department of Philosophy. I was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1979. After graduating from college, I served in the National Guard for 2 years. I then attended Old Dominion University (Virginia, U.S.A) where I studied philosophy and psychology. While studying towards my Bachelors degree I became particularly interested in continental philosophy, notably in the thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Derrida. After completing my BA I moved to Coventry (U.K.) where I studied for an MA in Continental Philosophy at The University of Warwick. During my study there, I took modules on Hegel under the instruction of Dr. Stephen Houlgate. That's when I got interested in the "problem of presuppositions", which I connect with Heidegger's focus on pre-reflective understanding. My MA dissertation topic was Nietzsche and Aesthetics, supervised by Dr. Keith-Ansell Pearson. After my MA I went back to Cyprus where I worked in commerce for two years. Then I went to Düsseldorf, Germany, where I studied German for four months. I returned to academia in January 2009 when I started working towards a DPhil at The University of Sussex. My research topic is Heidegger and Moods, supervised by Dr. Tanja Staehler and Dr. Michael Morris.

In parallel to philosophy, I have an interest and involvement in political journalism and in the arts. I have contributed more than twenty political articles to Cypriot newspapers (Politis, Simerini, Phileleftheros), remaining committed to a democratic settlement of the Cyprus Problem. I have also collaborated with Cypriot artists in art-exhibitions. 

During my free time I listen to classical music and daydream of my summers in Cyprus which I spend touring on a motorbike and snorkeling in the beautiful Mediterranean sea! I also play squash with colleagues and just started learning how to play the guitar.

Role

Assistant Tutor in Philosophy

Qualifications

Education:

-D.Phil. in Philosophy candidate, University of Sussex (UK), 2012.
Concentrations: Phenomenology, Existentialism, Aristotle.
Dissertation title: Heidegger and the Phenomenology of Moods. Supervisors: Dr. Tanja Stähler, Prof. Dr. Michael Morris.                                        

-M.A., Continental Philosophy, University of Warwick (UK), 2006.
Concentrations: Phenomenology, Existentialism, German Idealism.
Thesis title: Nietzsche and Aesthetics. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Keith Ansell-Pearson.                                                                           

-B.A. (Magna Cum Laude), Philosophy and Psychology, Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA, 2004. Concentrations: Postmodernism, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Aristotle.                                                                                                            

Awards, Honors, Scholarships and Grants:

-DAAD Research Grant, Freie Universität Berlin, Winter Term 2011- Summer Term 2012. Concentration: Philosophy of Affect. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hilge Landweer.

-Erasmus Scholarship, Freie Universität Berlin, Summer Term 2011. Concentration: Philosophy of Affect. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hilge Landweer.

-International Student Leadership Award, $5000, Old Dominion University, Autumn 2003.

-International Student Scholarship, $3000, Old Dominion University, Autumn 2000.

-Dean’s List, Old Dominion University, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004.

-Member of Golden Key National Honor Society

Presentations:

-July 2011. Early Heidegger on Befindlichkeit. Paper presented at the PhD students’ Kolloquium. Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany.

-December 2010. Mood as a kinetic concept in Heidegger. Paper presented at the Graduate Research Workshop. University of Sussex, Brighton United Kingdom. 

-December 2010. Utility, Ethics and Finitude: a critique of modern Economics. Presentation at the Institute of Development Studies and Philosophy Department Joint Debates. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.  

-June 2010. Heidegger’s Moods: an Aristotelian and Platonic inheritance. Paper presented at the International Conference ‘Phenomenology and Ancient Greek Philosophy: Reappraisal and Renewal’. University of Crete, Rethymnon, Greece.

-March 2010. Heidegger and Humanism. Paper presented at the South Place Ethical Society, London.

-August 2009. Heidegger’s Understanding of Aristotelian ‘βο¿λευσις’ and its Relation to Heideggerian ‘Eigentlichkeit’ and ‘Stimmung’. Paper presented at the 2009 Joint Conference of the Society for European Philosophy and the Forum for European Philosophy. University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, Wales.

-June 2009. The genealogy of Befindlichkeit in Heidegger. Paper presented at the Graduate Research Workshop. University of Sussex, Brighton United Kingdom.

Administrative Experience:

-Phenomenology IS194. Advanced undergraduate course design (Forthcoming: Summer 2011). http://www.sussex.ac.uk/iss/courses/directory/2010/36676 . International Summer School, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.

-The Ends of Phenomenology: A Graduate Conference in Phenomenology. (May 2011). Co-organizer. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.

-Institute of Development Studies and Philosophy Department Joint Debates (November-December 2010). http://ids-phil.tumblr.com/. Co-organizer. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. 

-Studies in Social and Political Thought (Spring 2011 volume). Invited reviewer. Journal published by the Centre of Social and Political Thought, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.

-Launches and re-launches: A Graduate Conference in Phenomenology (May 2010).    http://sussex-phenomenology.blogspot.com . Head Organizer. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.

-European Citizens’ Consultations (April 2009). Rapporteur and co-author of Press Release. Organized by the N.G.O. Index. Project funded by the European Union Commission http://www.european-citizens-consultations.eu/cy/ .

Popular Press authorships and editings:

-Lambrakis Stavros, AN HΣΥΧΟΣ ΥΠΕΡ ΒΟΛΙΚΟΣ- Poetry Collection (February 2011). Special editor. Bookworm Publishing, Nicosia, Cyprus.

-Sergiou Charalambos and Vaso, The Butterfly Effect (July 2010). Art Exhibition http://www.sergiou.com/butterfly_effect.htm . Booklet translation editor. Proteas Press Ltd, Nicosia, Cyprus.

-Den 3exnw 74 (July 2009). Group Art Exhibition www.den3exnw74.blogspot.com . Author of Press Release and booklet editor. Nicosia, Cyprus.

-Hadjioannou Louis, Travellism (December 2009). Photographic exhibition www.travellism.blogspot.com. Editor of booklet commentary. Scarabeo Culture Club, Nicosia, Cyprus.

-Sergiou Charalambos and Vaso, Do not feed the Humans (November 2008). Art Exhibition http://www.sergiou.com/cnt/fdhum/review.htm . Author of booklet commentary. Pantheon Art Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus.

-Hadjioannou Christos, Phileleftheros Cypriot Daily Newspaper (2006-2009). Regular article contributor. (Several articles, including the following):

-  The yet-unclear “agreed” basic principles of the “new constitution” of Cyprus (Tuesday, 29 July 2008).

-   Do not underestimate the International Law  (Sunday, 8 June 2008).

-   The danger of a weak government. (Sunday, 24 February 2008 -Presidential Election Day).

-Hadjioannou Christos, Simerini Cypriot Daily Newspaper (2006). Article contributor.

-Hadjioannou Christos, Politis Cypriot Daily Newspaper (2003-2005). Article contributor.

My research interest lies in 20th Century Continental Philosophy, notably in phenomenology and existentialism.

Title of Project:

 The title of my proposed research-project is Heidegger and the Phenomenology of Moods. It is a title that situates the research within the discipline of 20^th Century Continental Philosophy. It is a relatively broad title that does not readily make manifest or prescribe a particular orientation; nevertheless, there is good justificatory reason for the broadness of it. It relies on the conviction that the phenomenon of moods has not been adequately researched, down to its fundamental grounds, neither in the broad philosophical sense, nor in the specific phenomenological sense. In addition, it is a title that comprehensively approaches the operation of mood, in Martin Heidegger’s philosophy in its entirety. Mood appears in various forms throughout Heidegger’s philosophy (as “Befindlichkeit”, as “Stimmung”, as “Gestimmtheit”, as “Affekt” etc); it is one of the concepts that figures in both the early Heideggerian works and the later ones. Mood is a generic notion that leaves open the room for a systematic account that could unify Heidegger’s later work with the earlier work. Finally, the word mood is in the plural (moods) because the research will not only tackle the operational character of mood in Heidegger’s ontology but it will also examine issues pertaining to particular moods and the way Heidegger dealt with them (e.g. Angst, boredom, awe etc).    

Scope, aims and basic approach:

The research focuses on the operation of mood (Befindlichkeit/Stimmung) in Martin Heidegger’s ontology. It aims to provide a comprehensive account of the way mood operates in Heidegger’s ontology as well as to explore its significance and defining role in the very development (the so called “Kehre”) of Heidegger’s thought.

Heidegger’s phenomenological ontology systematically attends to “everydayness” and the pre-theoretical consciousness that is characteristic of it. In this context, Heidegger raised the significance of moods to an ontological level: Moods are not simply subjective, secondary, phenomena that accompany understanding, but they are modes of disclosing the world itself as a meaningful totality of references and engaged involvements.

Heidegger justified the exigency to attend to the pre-theoretical aspect of understanding, by virtue of the hermeneutic principle that every act of knowing and every concept of knowledge is always already preceded and guided by a pre-theoretical grasp of the phenomenon, which is embedded in a mood. Thus, both non-philosophical (ontical), as well as philosophical (ontological), understanding [Verstehen] are accompanied by and formed within a mood. In this context, Heidegger ascribes to mood an epistemological “disclosive operation” whereby a Mood discloses the facticity of our existence, as a fundamental mode of Being-In-the-World [In-der-Welt-Sein]. This operation is philosophically invaluable, as it undercuts the problem of skepticism by positing the Dasein as neither a self-enclosed subject nor as an object, rather, as a dynamic being that is itself  in-between (Zwischen) a subject and an object, always already within a World.

Heidegger’s thematization of moods is an important part of his deconstruction of the “presuppositionless scientific standpoint” that accompanies his criticism of theorizing and metaphysics. In addition, what Heidegger says of moods is also important for his criticism of the subject-object dichotomy. In so far as mood denotes the pre-reflective way in which Dasein already finds itself situated in the world, it signifies an irreducible “in-between” the subject and the object (the mind and the world). Mood is therefore a mode of disclosure that exists prior to experiential bifurcation and as such transcends subjectivity.

Beyond the quasi-epistemological disclosive operation of mood, there is another, equally important yet unexplored, operation of mood: a kinetic operation that is fundamentally intertwined within Dasein’s facticity [Faktizität]. In Being and Time, Heidegger connects Stimmung with “sheer thatness” but also with movement and the phenomenon of undergoing a change. In the late lecture What is Philosophy? (1955), Heidegger, following Plato and Aristotle, determines mood as the arch¿ of philosophy. But even before that, in Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowing) (1936-38), Heidegger envisioned a cultural transformation that would constitute a “new beginning” of thinking, whose beginning he connected with a Grundstimmung. In this context, it has been argued by certain commentators[1] that moods supply the “binding necessity” for the cultural transformation that Heidegger envisioned. This remains an operational significance that is still underexplored, especially in connection to Heidegger’s political discourse.  

The meaning of mood has not been adequately researched and clarified by Heideggerian scholarship, despite its significance. In this context, Heidegger’s philosophical “turn” (i.e. the change in focus, from the ‘existential analytic of Dasein’ to the ‘temporal analytic of Being’), appears systematically incomprehensible partly because of an inadequate analysis of mood. In this regard, my research addresses and aims to clarify particular problems, for example, how Heidegger appropriates the Aristotelian concepts of ¿ξις and δι¿θεσις, why he privileges Angst in Being and Time; why he later privileges boredom, how moods relate to temporal consciousness, historicity and cultural history, et cetera.

A better understanding of mood will not only contribute to a narrow technical aspect of Heideggerian scholarship, but it will reverberate in other aspects of Heidegger’s philosophy, thus providing an important contribution to phenomenology. My research will provide new insights into the genealogy of the notion of Mood in Heidegger’s thought, based on Heidegger’s nuanced analyses and appropriations of Aristotle’s vocabulary. But a better understanding of Heideggerian mood will also contribute to the wider mind-body problem that ensues from Cartesian methodological skepticism, as well as to Heidegger’s criticism of Kantian ethics. In this context, Heidegger’s focus on moods can be conceptualized as a response to the epistemological problems that captivated the Cartesian train of thought, as well as a response to the problems of deontological ethics.      

Heidegger was the first philosopher to systematically incorporate moods in a phenomenology. Moods therefore are not only important from an ontological standpoint, but also from a methodological one. It is my intention to address a broader phenomenological audience in assessing and charting the possibilities of a phenomenology of moods.

My research will consist of two methodological approaches, each complementing the other: a genealogical exegetic approach and a constructive evaluative approach.

A good part of the research will be genealogical exegetic, in the sense that it will engage in a textual explicatory analysis of Heidegger’s etymological and other conceptual maneuvers from which Heidegger discerns the fundamental concepts of his philosophy. This part aims to enrich the current knowledge of the genealogy of the concepts of Befindlichkeit and Stimmung. In this context, Heidegger’s early lectures on Plato and Aristotle will constitute a fundamental source of knowledge.

The other half of the research will be constituted by a constructive evaluative approach, in the sense that it will address the philosophical problems of Heidegger’s works with respect to the concept of mood, beyond their linguistic character, evaluating their phenomenological adequacy. This also entails facing up to the quasi-political discourse that Heidegger’s appeal to moods produces (as Heidegger anchored the vision of a cultural transformation to the experience of a fundamental mood). In this context, I will address questions like why Heidegger’s phenomenology relies so much on linguistic analysis (which the exegetic part of my research uncritically confirms), or why Heidegger privileges particular moods at the expense of others.      

[1] See Klaus Held’s “Fundamental Moods and Heidegger’s Critique of Contemporary Culture” in Reading Heidegger- Commemorations. Ed. John Sallis.

My supervisors are Dr. Tanja Staehler (90%) and Prof. Dr. Michael Morris (10%). I will also spend three semesters at Freie Universität Berlin, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Hilge Landweer.

During the Autumn Term 2010 I taught the seminars of Introduction to Philosophy.

I will be at Freie Universität Berlin until the end of the next academic year (i.e. the Summer of 2012), in the context of a six-month Erasmus Scholarship and a one-year DAAD Research Grant.