Prof. Dr. Asher Jiang
Date of birth: 26 March 1981
Nationality: German
Affiliation: Department of Philosophy, Tsinghua University
Email: asherjiang@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
Educational Background
07. 2018: Habilitation, Department of Philosophy, University of Heidelberg
12. 2010: Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Heidelberg
05. 2006: Magister’s Degree (equivalent to a combined Bachelor's and Master's degree), Department of Philosophy, University of Heidelberg
Academic Career
Since 01. 2024: Full Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Tsinghua University
08. 2017－01. 2024: Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Tsinghua University
10. 2012 – 07. 2017: Assistant Professor (Akademischer Rat) at the Department of Philosophy, University of Heidelberg
08. 2011 – 08. 2012: Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, University of Zurich
05. 2011 – 03. 2012: Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, University of Heidelberg
Language Skills
Chinese: native proficiency
German: near-native proficiency
English: fluent in academic and professional contexts
Russian: fluent in everyday contexts
Latin: reading proficiency
Research Interests
AOS:
British Empiricism: Locke, Berkeley, Hume
Early Analytic Philosophy: Carnap, Frege
Analytic Metaphysics: theory of truthmaking, the concept of existence, pictorial and linguistic representation
Metametaphysics: metaontological deflationism and metaontological pluralism
AOC:
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of science
List of Selected Publications
A) Books
1. Asher Jiang. Vom Phaenomenalen zum Gedanklichen – Studien zu David Humes Semantik, Begriffslehre und Metaphysik (?From Phenomena to Concepts – A Study of David Hume’s Semantics, Theory of Concepts, and Metaphysics“), Brill, 2020，Habilitationsschrift.
2. Asher Jiang. Die Konstitution eines Weltbildes – Eine Neubewertung von Carnaps Konstitutionsprojekt (?The Construction of a World View – A New Evaluation of Carnap’s Constructional Project“), München: Akademischer Verlag, 2014, PhD. Dissertation.
B) Journal Articles
1. Asher Jiang. Truthmaking cannot be done afar. In: Synthese (A&HCI), 2023.
2. Asher Jiang. Against Hirsch's Metaontological Deflationism. In: Synthese (A&HCI) 2021.
3. Asher Jiang. Conceiving Existence. In: British Journal for the History of Philosophy (A&HCI) 2018.
4. Asher Jiang. The Limit of Objectivism(客观主义的界限). In: Tsinghua Studies in Western Philosophy (《清华西方哲学研究》, CSSCI), 2018.
5. Asher Jiang, Idee als Bedeutung? (Ideas as meanings?). In: Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung (A&HCI), 2015.
6. Asher Jiang. Hume on the Meaning of “Power”. In: Journal of Scottish Philosophy, 2015.
7. Asher Jiang. War Carnap ein Phaenomenalist? (Was Carnap a phenomenalist?). In: Conceptus, 2014.
8. Asher Jiang. Carnap’s Aufbau reconsidered (对<世界的逻辑构造>的重新评估》). In: Foreign Philosophy (《外国哲学》), 2014.
9. Asher Jiang. Analytic Philosophy – An Introduction with Emphasis on Key Topics (分析哲学–带重点的导论)，in:《哲学门》, 2011.
10. Asher Jiang. Frege on Truth (弗雷格的‘真’). In: 《哲学门》, 2010.
11. Asher Jiang. Quine′s Ontological Criterion (奎因的本体论标准). In: Philosophical Trends (《哲学动态》, CSSCI), 2007.
C) Invited Book Reviews
Asher Jiang. Book review of Humes Moralphilosophie unter chinesischem Einfluss, by May Reinhard, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2012. In: Philosophy East and West (A&HCI), 2014.
D) Conference Papers & Invited Talks
1. Asher Jiang. Hume on the semantics of general terms. Fudan University, October 2024 (invited talk).
2. Asher Jiang. Carnap’s ontological pluralism. Fudan University, October 2024 (invited talk).
3. Asher Jiang. Why are maps not languages, and why is our mind not a map? Fudan University, October 2024 (invited talk).
4. Asher Jiang. On the difference between pictorial and linguistic representation. Nanjing University, June 2024 (invited talk).
5. Asher Jiang. How not to make Carnap a Neo-Carnapian. Society for the Study of the History of Analytical Philosophy (SSHAP) 11th Annual Meeting, Humboldt University, July 13 – 15, 2023.
6. Asher Jiang. Producing things with the help of our concepts – The danger of ontological permissivism. Internationa l conference ‘Logic and Philosophy’, Tsinghua University, 2018 (invited speaker).
7. Asher Jiang. Hume on the concept and the idea of existence. University of Freiburg, 2015 (invited talk).
8. Asher Jiang. Hume and the so-called ‘idea-semantics’. University of Zurich, 2014 (Invited talk).
9. Asher Jiang. Hume's empirical criterion of meaning as applied to his own term 'power’. International Conference on the Scottish Enlightenment, Princeton University, 2014.
E) Papers under Review
1. Asher Jiang. How Carnapian are the Neo-Carnapians? European Journal of Philosophy (A&HCI)
2. The Missing Selectiveness: How Maps Uniquely Represent Reality, No?s (A&HCI)
Courses Taught
Courses for undergraduate students:
1. Introduction to Western Philosophy: From Descartes to Fodor
2. Metaphysics
3. Philosophy of Mind
4. David Hume: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
5. Introduction to Formal Logic
6. MacFarlane’s Relativism
Courses for graduate students:
7. British Empiricism
8. Metaontology and Pluralism
9. Frege’s Philosophy of Language
10. Understanding Pictorial Representations
11. Colloquium for Scientific Writing
Running external Projects
1. Since 2020: A study of Hume’s theory of conceptual thinking, funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education
2. Since 2023: Pluralism at the fundamental level of our worldview, funded by Berggruen Institute.
Awards
1. Tsinghua Award for Excellent Teaching, 2018.
2. Berggruen Scholarship, 2023 – 2024.
Public Service
1. Editor-in-Chief of Tsinghua Studies in Western Philosophy (CSSCI) since 2019.
2. Coordinator of the Tsinghua Visiting Professors Program for Western Philosophy since 2019.
