Alexander Berg

Curriculum Vitae

alexanderberg.ch · ORCID 0000-0002-3409-0396 · as of October 2026

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Positions and fellowships

2023–2024
Postdoctoral Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, University of Konstanz (with Albrecht Koschorke)
2021–2023
Feodor Lynen Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Deutsches Seminar, University of Zurich (with Frauke Berndt)
2019–2021
Research Associate, Institute of Philosophy, TU Dresden (with Thomas Rentsch)
2020
DAAD Postdoctoral Fellow, Deutsches Seminar, University of Zurich (with Frauke Berndt)
2018–2019
Research stay and teaching assignments, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University Prague (with Karel Novotný)

Education

in progress
Habilitation, University of ZurichThesis: Zur literarischen Form von Philosophie – Grundlinien eines Systems der Literatur
2018
Dr. phil., summa cum laude, TU Dresden and Charles University Prague (joint doctorate, cotutelle)Thesis: Absolutes Wissen und Grundlose Gewissheit – Hegel und Wittgenstein, published as Wittgensteins Hegel (2021). Supervisors: Thomas Rentsch and Hans Rainer Sepp
2013
Magister Artium in Philosophy, TU DresdenThesis: Transzendenz bei Hegel und Heidegger, written in the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 804 “Transzendenz und Gemeinsinn”
2002–2013
Studies of philosophy, art history and psychology, TU Dresden, the Sorbonne (Paris) and the University of Florence

Research stays

2016
University of Chicago (with James Conant)
2016
Wren Library, Trinity College Cambridge
2014–2015
Research assignment at the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (with Alois Pichler)

Teaching

2022
MA course (teaching assignment), Deutsches Seminar, University of Zurich
  • Autumn semester 2022, seminar: “Literarisch denken. Eine Literaturgeschichte der Philosophie”A literary history of philosophy reads philosophical works explicitly as literary texts, attending above all to the relation between literary form and philosophical content. The seminar examined literary forms in major works from Hegel to Adorno and related them to key texts of literary theory. Taught in German, as a colloquium for the MA programmes in Modern German Literature and in Literature, Knowledge, Culture; 31 registered students, assessed by essays. English title: Literary Thinking. A Literary History of Philosophy.
    Session plan
    1. Christiane Schildknecht on the literary forms of philosophy
    2. Wittgenstein, the prefaces to the Tractatus and the Philosophical Investigations
    3. Julia Kristeva, “Bachtin, das Wort, der Dialog und der Roman”
    4. Hegel, Phänomenologie des Geistes: “Die Bildung”
    5. Hegel on Plato’s dialogues; Michel Foucault, “Was ist ein Autor?”
    6. Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra
    7. Paul de Man, “Der Widerstand gegen die Theorie”
    8. Heidegger, Sein und Zeit
    9. Christine Abbt and Christian Benne, a literature-philosophy (with their workshop at the University of Zurich)
    10. Albrecht Koschorke, “Codes und Narrative”
    11. Hannah Arendt, Vita activa
    12. Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia
2018–2019
Courses on philosophy and literature (teaching assignments), Faculty of Humanities, Charles University PragueSupervision of two MA theses in philosophy
  • Summer semester 2019, seminar: “Philosophy and Literature”Since the linguistic turn, philosophy has had to reflect on how its insights are mediated by language – including the literary forms of its works. The seminar examined, on classical works and recent research, how far the literary form of philosophical works shapes their content as philosophical knowledge.
    Session plan and readings
    1. Dieter Henrich I
    2. Dieter Henrich II
    3. Wittgenstein I
    4. Wittgenstein II
    5. Frauke Berndt, Poema/Gedicht
    6. Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten I
    7. Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten II
    8. Gottfried Gabriel, “Literarische Form und nicht-propositionale Erkenntnis”
    9. Thomas Rentsch, “Die Kultur der quaestio”
    10. Carlos Spoerhase, “Was ist ein Werk?”
    11. Steffen Martus, “Die Selbstanregung des Werks”
    12. Hans Blumenberg, metaphorology I
    13. Hans Blumenberg, metaphorology II

    Readings

    • Dieter Henrich: Werke im Werden. Über die Genesis philosophischer Einsichten, München 2011
    • Irina Wutsdorff: “Philosophie und Literatur – Erkenntnis und Darstellung. Einführende Bemerkungen zu einem komplizierten Verhältnis”, in: Catrin Misselhorn, Schamma Schahadat, Irina Wutsdorff (eds.): Erkenntnis und Darstellung. Formen der Philosophie und der Literatur, Paderborn 2011, pp. 7–18
    • Irina Wutsdorff: Bachtin und der Prager Strukturalismus. Modelle poetischer Offenheit am Beispiel der tschechischen Avantgarde, München 2006
    • Gottfried Gabriel, Christiane Schildknecht (eds.): Literarische Formen der Philosophie, Stuttgart 1990
    • Frauke Berndt: Poema/Gedicht. Die epistemische Konfiguration der Literatur um 1750, Berlin 2011
    • Steffen Martus: Werkpolitik, Berlin 2007
    • Carlos Spoerhase: Autorschaft und Interpretation. Methodische Grundlagen einer philologischen Hermeneutik, Berlin 2012
    • Hans Blumenberg: Paradigmen zu einer Metaphorologie, Frankfurt am Main 1960
  • Summer semester 2019, seminar: “Philosophers and Transcendence”What does transcendence mean in philosophical, theological or artistic contexts, and does it have a historical or social dimension of its own? The seminar pursued these questions through key analyses by Hegel, Heidegger, Husserl, Charles Taylor and others.
    Session plan and readings
    1. Hegel I
    2. Hegel II
    3. Heidegger I
    4. Heidegger II
    5. Hegel and Heidegger compared
    6. Charles Taylor I
    7. Charles Taylor II
    8. Husserl
    9. Meister Eckhart
    10. Nicholas of Cusa
    11. George Berkeley
    12. Kierkegaard
    13. Merleau-Ponty

    Readings

    • Alexander Berg: Transzendenz bei Hegel und Heidegger, Nordhausen 2012
    • Aleš Novák (ed.): Grenzen der Transzendenz, Nordhausen 2013
    • Charles Taylor: Ein säkulares Zeitalter, Frankfurt am Main 2009
    • Markus Enders: “Transzendenz”, in: Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, pp. 1442–1455
    • Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer: Sinn, Berlin 2011, ch. 2: “Transzendenz und Immanenz”, pp. 43–70
    • Thomas Rentsch: Gott, Berlin 2005, ch. 2, pp. 48–108
    • Jean-Luc Marion: “The Event, the Phenomenon, and the Revealed”, in: James E. Faulconer (ed.): Transcendence in Philosophy and Religion, pp. 87–105
  • Winter semester 2018/19, seminar: Reading Hegel’s Phenomenology of SpiritThe Phenomenology is one of the most famous works in the history of philosophy, but its dense style makes it hard to enter. The seminar offered a way in for beginners, with advanced readers welcome. Assessed by essays.
  • Winter semester 2018/19, seminar: Wittgenstein’s philosophical development and its Cambridge backgroundWhen Wittgenstein came to Cambridge in 1911, analytic philosophy was just emerging, shaped by the debate between his teachers Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore and the British Hegelians F. H. Bradley and J. M. E. McTaggart. The seminar discussed the main stages of Wittgenstein’s thought against this background. Assessed by essays.
2016
Seminar on Wittgenstein’s early philosophy, Charles University PragueThe Tractatus and the Notes on Logic, read together with the debate on the “resolute reading” (Cora Diamond, James Conant, P. M. S. Hacker, Silver Bronzo)
2013–2014
Seminars on Wittgenstein’s philosophy (teaching assignments, with examinations), Institute of Philosophy, TU Dresden
  • Summer semester 2014, seminar: “Ludwig Wittgenstein: Über Gewißheit”Written until a few days before his death, On Certainty can be read as Wittgenstein’s philosophical testament. The seminar introduced his late thought and its place in the wider discourse of philosophy through a problem-oriented reading of selected sections. Taught in German, for BA and teacher-training modules (philosophy and ethics). Text: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Über Gewißheit, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1984.
  • Winter semester 2013/14, seminar: “Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophische Untersuchungen”An introduction to Wittgenstein’s thought through the reading and discussion of sections of the Philosophical Investigations. Taught in German.
    Session plan and readings
    1. Introductory session
    2. §§ 1–25: Language games and meaning I
    3. §§ 26–43: Language games and meaning II
    4. §§ 44–64: Analysis of language
    5. §§ 65–88: Family resemblance
    6. §§ 89–133: Language and philosophy
    7. §§ 134–155: Rule-following I – understanding and knowing
    8. §§ 156–178: Rule-following II – reading
    9. §§ 179–197: Rule-following III – meaning something (Meinen)
    10. §§ 198–242: Rule-following IV – rules and form of life
    11. §§ 243–280: Private language I
    12. §§ 281–315: Private language II
    13. §§ 633–693 and concluding discussion

    Readings

    • Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophische Untersuchungen, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 2003
    • Eike von Savigny (ed.): Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophische Untersuchungen (Klassiker Auslegen), Berlin: Akademie Verlag 1998
    • Ernst Michael Lange: Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophische Untersuchungen. Eine kommentierende Einführung, Stuttgart: UTB 1998
    • Wolfgang Kienzler: Ludwig Wittgensteins „Philosophische Untersuchungen“, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2007
    • Peter M. S. Hacker: Wittgenstein im Kontext der analytischen Philosophie, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1997
    • Thomas Rentsch: Heidegger und Wittgenstein, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 2003
    • Ray Monk: Wittgenstein. Das Handwerk des Genies, Stuttgart 2004

Grants and fellowships

2023–2024
Postdoctoral fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (University of Konstanz)
2021–2023
Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (University of Zurich)
2020
Postdoctoral fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD (University of Zurich)
Publication grant from the Förderfonds Wissenschaft of VG Wort for Wittgensteins Hegel (2021)

Academic service

2023
Member of the appointment committee for the Assistant Professorship (Tenure Track) in Quantitative Methods of Intervention and Evaluation, Department of Psychology, University of ZurichDelegate of the Association of Advanced Researchers and Lecturers of the University of Zurich (VFFL)
2016–2024
Organization of international conferences and workshops, among them the series “Wittgenstein & Hegel” (2017–2024)
Peer review for Topoi (Springer Nature)
2002–2005
Deputy speaker of the student council of the Faculty of Philosophy (three terms), TU DresdenStudent member of the Institute Council of Philosophy, the Study Commission for Philosophy, the Examination Board and the library commission of the Saxon State and University Library

Public engagement

2021
Live talk at the Burgtheater Vienna on the premiere of Alles, was der Fall ist#wittgenlive, the Burgtheater’s live talk series on Instagram, 5 June 2021
2012–2013
Radio show and podcast “Denkzeit, die philosophische Selbsthilfe”

Publications and talks

3 monographs, 4 edited volumes (1 forthcoming), 19 articles and book chapters (3 forthcoming) and 2 translations: complete list at alexanderberg.ch/publications/, also as a BibTeX file.

53 talks since 2010: list of talks at alexanderberg.ch/talks/.

Languages and memberships

Fluent: German, English, Italian, French.
Basic: Latin, Czech, Norwegian, Russian.

  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft Religionsphilosophie Dresden e. V.
  • Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society (ALWS)
  • British Wittgenstein Society (BWS)
  • Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie
  • German Humboldt Network e. V.
  • Internationale Hegel-Gesellschaft
  • Internationale Ludwig Wittgenstein Gesellschaft (ILWG)
  • Italien-Zentrum der Technischen Universität Dresden
  • Society for the Study of the History of Analytical Philosophy (SSHAP)
  • The Central-European Institute of Philosophy (Charles University, Prague)
  • Young Network for Wittgensteinian Philosophy