Haptic Skepticism: a study of doubt as the force that sustains ethics and desire

Collaborators: Rachel Aumiller, Ana Jovanovic, Bara Kolenc, Adi Louria Hayon, Mirt Komel, Jacob Levi, Robert Pfaller, Libera Pisano, Bill Rebiger, Goran Vranesevic
2017 – present

Haptic skepticism is an ongoing international research initiative that probes the relationship between desire, touch, and doubt. As a researcher at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies – Project in Jewish Scepticism at the University of Hamburg, I studied the role of touch throughout the history of philosophical skepticism. In order to pursue this topic further, I brought the Maimonides Centre into collaboration with the Slovenian project, The Language of Touch. This most unusual pairing gave rise to a series of workshops and lectures held in Germany, Slovenia, and the United States. Our first attempt to define haptic skepticism can be found in our collected volume A Touch of Doubt: On Haptic Skepticism (De Gruyter 2020).

For a deeper description of haptic skepticism, please see my research page.

Our central publications and events were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Slovenian Research Agency.