People
Philosophy of mind group (Wagner) 

Philosophy of mind group (Wagner)


Head of group

Professor Dr. Verena Wagner
Full Professor
Department of Philosophy, HU Berlin
Berlin School of Mind and Brain, HU Berlin

Personal webpage

https://verenawagner.net

E-mail contact

mb-phil-mind@hu-berlin.de
Please use this address for topics related to teaching and supervision.

mb-office@hu-berlin.de
Office manager

verena.wagner@hu-berlin.de
Prof. Dr. Verena Wagner

Contact and visiting address

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Berlin School of Mind and Brain
Luisenstraße 56, Haus 1, 10117 Berlin
(North Wing, 2nd floor)

Office manager: Gabriel Kleber
Tel. +49 30 2093-89782
Room 306
mb-office@hu-berlin.de

Postal address

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Berlin School of Mind and Brain
Professor Dr. Verena Wagner
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin, Germany

Current position and affiliations

Group

  • Böke, Ana (student research intern)
  • Encheva, Sofia (student research intern)
  • Herzig, Greta (student research assistant)
  • Kleber, Gabriel (office Manager)
  • Kohde, Janis (student research assistant)
  • Kreppner, Natalie (student research assistant)
  • Masur, Vanessa (student research assistant)
  • Wiese, Clara (student research assistant)

Guests and research collaborators

  • Korn, Christoph (Cognitive Neuroscience, U Heidelberg)
  • McGrath, Matthew (Philosophy, U Washington St. Louis)
  • Neth, Hansjörg (Social Psychology, U Konstanz)
  • Oganian, Yulia (Cognitive Neuroscience, U Tübingen)
  • Zinke, Alexandra (Philosophy, U Frankfurt)

Research projects

DFG Priority Programme: 
Rethinking Disinformation (Re:DIS)

Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

PIs:
Romy Jaster (HU Berlin)
Geert Keil (HU Berlin)
Verena Wagner (HU Berlin)

Homepage
Press release (de/en)

Neutral by Choice: Cognitive Neuroscience meets Philosophy of Mind

Funded by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (HAdW), WIN-Kolleg (04/2024–03/2027)

PIs
Verena Wagner (Philosophy, HU Berlin)
Yulia Oganian (Cognitive Neuroscience, U Tübingen)
Christoph Korn (Cognitive Neuroscience, U Heidelberg)

Homepage

Thinking about Suspension

Research Network, Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (10/2021–09/2024)

PIs
Verena Wagner (U Konstanz, HU Berlin)
Alexandra Zinke (U Frankfurt/Main)

Homepage
 

More projects
 

Research areas

Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind; Philosophy of Language

Research projects

I am working at the intersection of philosophy of mind and epistemology. In particular, I am interested in the nature of mental states and attitudes in the vicinity of cognitive neutrality, e.g., agnosticism, ignorance, doxastic indecision, suspension of judgment and belief. In this context, I am also exploring how mental attitudes and activities relate to inquiry and deliberation (the “zetetic turn” in epistemology). I hold a pluralist view on cognitive neutrality, and I think that we should be clear about the nature of mental states and processes before we think of their respective normative profiles. For example, some forms of cognitive neutrality seem to be agential which has implications for their rationality.

I am also interested in the phenomena of deception (self or other) and disinformation. In particular, I study the notion of bullshitting which I analyse as giving fake answers to questions under discussion (QUDs). I try to make my philosophical work on fake answers accessible for broader audiences (see my outreach project on bullshit and fake answers).

In previous work, I was concerned with the debate on free will (or our lack thereof). In my PhD thesis, I suggested a theory of freedom of action that is compatible with determinism as well as indeterminism. After that, I worked on applications of the compatibilist free will debate to the doxastic realm (doxastic freedom and doxastic compatibilism).

 

This page last updated on: 28 October 2025