David Webb

My research centered for some years on Heidegger, and in particular on his relation to Aristotle. What intrigued me about this was principally the relation between ontology and praxis. More recently, my interest has been primarily in Michel Foucault and Michel Serres. Working on Serres has also drawn me towards atomism and the traces of it in modern philosophy (in themes of discontinuity, contingency and a certain philosophy of immanence). Over the last few years, I have found myself absorbed by the work of Jean Cavaillès, above all from the perspective of his importance for Foucault. I am a great admirer of Gaston Bachelard. Emmanuel Levinas is a continual source of inspiration, and I have a longstanding interest in Italian philosophy.

Current projects include a book on Foucault’s The Archaeology of Knowledge (forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press), and an edition in English of selected works of Cavaillès that I am co-editing with Knox Peden. When these are done, I’ll be working on book on nihilism. With Howard Caygill. I'm also co-general editor of seven volume series, The Edinburgh Critical History of Philosophy - the first volume, on 19th Century Philosophy, edited by Alison Stone - came out earlier this year.

I teach undergraduate courses on technology, social philosophy and the formation of the self, and truth. In addition, I teach a variety of text based courses, which in recent years have focussed on the work of Levinas (Totality and Infinity), Foucault (The Birth of Biopolitics), Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics), Plato (Republic), Leibniz (selections) and Lucretius (De rerum natura – though we used a translation).

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