Michels Robert (A817-FECB-F0FC)

Curriculum Vitae

Michels Robert

Robert Michels received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Geneva in 2013 and has since then been a post doc there and at the Università della Svizzera italiana and has taught at the Universities of Bern, Geneva, Neuchâtel in Switzerland and at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. Since late 2022, he is FCT assistant researcher at LanCog, at the Centre of Philosophy, University of Lisbon. He co-organized the weekly research seminar of the eidos group from 2017-2021 and was a member of the editorial committee of the journal Dialectica from 2010-2020. He edited a special issue of Dialectica on the formalization of arguments and has published articles in journals including Ergo, The European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Philosophical Studies, and Synthese. Subjects covered in his published works include essence, laws of nature, metaphysical indeterminacy, modality, and two-dimensional semantics.

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Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Michels Robert

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: A817-FECB-F0FC
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4982-7239

Knowledge fields

Humanities - Philosophy, Ethics and Religion - Philosophy
Humanities - Philosophy, Ethics and Religion - History and Philisophy of Science and Technology

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2022/11/01 - Current	Auxiliary Researcher (Research)	Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras, Portugal
	Universidade de Lisboa Centro de Filosofia, Portugal
2019/08/01 - 2021/12/31	Postdoc (Research)	Università della Svizzera Italiana Facoltà di scienze della comunicazione, Switzerland

2014 - 2017	Postdoc (Research)	Université de Genève Département de Philosophie, Switzerland
	Université de Genève Département de Philosophie, Switzerland
2010/08/01 - 2014	Researcher (Research)	Université de Genève Département de Philosophie, Switzerland

Teaching in Higher Education

	Category Host institution	Employer
2021/02/01 - 2022/01/31	Lecturer (University Teacher)	Universität Bern Institut für Philosophie, Switzerland

2018/08/01 - 2020/07/31	Lecturer (University Teacher)	Université de Neuchâtel Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Switzerland
	Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland
2019/02/01 - 2020/01/31	Lecturer (University Teacher)	Université de Genève Département de Philosophie, Switzerland
	Université de Genève Département de Philosophie, Switzerland

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2025/02/01 - 2026/07/31	Indeterminacy in Science 2023.15136.PEX Principal investigator Universidade de Lisboa Centro de Filosofia, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2022/11/01 - 2028/10/31	Understanding the Nature of Indeterminacy 2021.03171.CEECIND/CP1702/CT0015 10.54499/2021.03171.CEECIND/CP1702/CT0015 Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Letras, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing

Outputs

Publications

Book chapter	Robert, Michels. "Contemporary (Analytic Tradition)". In The Routledge Handbook of Essence in Philosophy, edited by Kathrin Koslicki; Michael J. Raven. Routledge, 2024. In press Robert, Michels. "Correct Conceivability and its Role in the Epistemology of Modality". In Les principes métaphysiques, edited by Declos, Alexandre; Guillon, Baptiste. France: Collège de France, 2020. 10.4000/books.cdf.8079
Book review	Robert, Michels. "Wiggins, David, Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being and Their Identity. Twelve Essays, Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, 239¿pp., $50.00 (£35.00) (hardback), ISBN: 9780198716624.". Review of David Wiggins, Continuants: Their Activity, Their Being and Their Identity. Twelve Essays 72, 2 (2018): 325-328. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1746-8361.12233. 10.1111/1746-8361.12233
Journal article	Robert, Michels; Calosi, Claudio. "Graded Qualities". Synthese (2025): Open access • In press Hirèche, Salim; Linnemann, Niels; Michels, Robert. "Are All Laws of Nature Created Equal? Meta-laws Versus More Necessary Laws". Erkenntnis (2023): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10670-023-00739-7. Open access • Accepted • 10.1007/s10670-023-00739-7 Robert, Michels; Mariani, Cristian; Torrengo, Giuliano. "Plural metaphysical supervaluationism". Inquiry 67 6 (2023): 2005-2042. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020174x.2021.1982404 https://philarchive.org/rec/MICPMS. Published • 10.1080/0020174x.2021.1982404 Michels, Robert. "The Formalization of Arguments". Dialectica (2022): http://dx.doi.org/10.48106/dial.v74.i2.01. Open access • In press • 10.48106/dial.v74.i2.01 Hirèche, Salim; Linnemann, Niels; Michels, Robert; Vogt, Lisa. "The strong arm of the law: a unified account of necessary and contingent laws of nature". Synthese 199 3-4 (2021): 10211-10252. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-021-03243-z. 10.1007/s11229-021-03243-z Hirèche, Salim; Linnemann, Niels; Robert, Michels; Vogt, Lisa. "The modal status of the laws of nature. Tahko’s hybrid view and the kinematical/dynamical distinction". European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 1 (2021): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13194-020-00335-4. Open access • Published • 10.1007/s13194-020-00335-4 Robert, Michels. "Husserlian Eidetic Variation and Objectual Understanding as a Basis for an Epistemology of Essence". Logos and Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology 3 11 (2020): 333-353. http://logos-and-episteme.acadiasi.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/michels.XI_.3.2020.pdf. Open access • Published Robert, Michels. "Essential Truths and Their Truth-Grounds". Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy 5 20201214 (2018): http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/ergo.12405314.0005.030. Open access • Published • 10.3998/ergo.12405314.0005.030 Robert, Michels. "On how (not) to define modality in terms of essence". Philosophical Studies 176 4 (2018): 1015-1033. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11098-018-1040-8. Published • 10.1007/s11098-018-1040-8 Robert, Michels. "Cross-World Comparatives for Modal Realists". Organon F 25 3 (2018): 368-391. http://www.klemens.sav.sk/fiusav/organon/?q=en/cross-world-comparatives-lewisians. Open access • Published Robert, Michels. "The limits of non-standard contingency". Philosophical Studies 176 2 (2017): 533-558. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-1027-x. Published • 10.1007/s11098-017-1027-x Robert, Michels. "Soames’s argument 1 against strong two-dimensionalism". Philosophical Studies 161 3 (2011): 403-420. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11098-011-9746-x. Published • 10.1007/s11098-011-9746-x
Journal issue	Robert, Michels. "Speciel Issue on the Formalization of Arguments". Dialectica (2023): https://dialectica.philosophie.ch. In press • Invited editor
Magazine article	Robert, Michels; Fritz, Peter; Ramanava, Maryia; Zinke, Alexandra. "Conference Report: First Formal Epistemology Festival, 28-30 July", The Reasoner, 2008, https://cdn-researchkent.pressidium.com/reasoning/wp-content/uploads/sites/1804/2019/06/TheReasoner-29.pdf.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2024/07/11	Graded Qualities	July Quantities Workshop SQuaRed-Ex project, University of Birmingham (Birmingham, United Kingdom)
2024/07/03	Dynamic Essence	The 2024 LanCog Summer Metaphysics Workshop University of Lisbon, Centre of Philosophy (Lisbon, Portugal)
2024/06/06	Ways of Being Wise	Research Colloquium of the Chair of Theoretical Philosophy Goethe University Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
2024/06/05	Graded Qualities	Workshop at the Chair of Theoretical Philosophy Goethe University Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
2024/05/16	Graded Qualities	1st Parma Workshop in Analytic and Scientific Metaphysics University of Parma (Parma, Italy)
2024/04/16	A Partial Defence of the Property View of Predicates	eidos seminar University of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland)
2023/10/13	Can AI Help Humeans?	Seminar Series in Analytic Philosophy Centre of Philosophy, University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal)
2023/10/03	Ways of being wise II	eidos seminar University of Geneva (Switzerland)
2023/06/09	Dynamic Essence	Fine Summerschool Aarberghus, Ligerz (Ligerz, Switzerland)
2023/06/07	Fine (and others) on Essence and Modality	Fine Summerschool Aarberghus, Ligerz (Ligerz, Switzerland)
2023/05/31	Graded Properties, Fuzzy Vagueness, and Metaphysical Indeterminacy	Workshop: Indeterminacy & Vagueness Università della Svizzera italiana (Lugano, Switzerland)
2023/03/17	Graded Properties	Seminar Series in Analytic Philosophy Lancog, CFUL, University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal)
2023/03	Ways of Being Wise	eidos seminar eidos, University of Geneva (Geneva, Switzerland)
2022/11/14	Graded Properties	Degrees in Epistemology and Beyond Universität Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland)

Event organisation

	Event name Type of event (Role)	Institution / Organization
2024/06/24 - Current	Publishing workshop for junior researchers and graduate students (2024/06/24) Workshop (Co-organisor)	Universidade de Lisboa Centro de Filosofia, Portugal
2023 - Current	Organisation of a reading group on mereology (2023) Seminar
2025/01/15 - 2025/09/30	GAP.12 Satellite workshop "New Work on Metaphysical Indeterminacy" (2025/09/12 - 2025/09/12) Workshop (Co-organisor)	Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany