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headshot of Mattias Iser

Mattias Iser

Associate Professor

Philosophy
LT 1213

Background

Mattias Iser works on questions in social and political as well as in moral philosophy. Inspired by, and in critical response to, the work of recent Frankfurt School theorists Habermas, Honneth and Forst, his research develops a deontological theory of recognition that emphasizes the claim to be treated as an equal normative authority. Currently, he is applying this conceptual framework to the just war debate. In his book project he emphasizes, against the overly individualistic mainstream, the crucial importance of interpersonal and institutional contexts of recognition for determining when it is justified to engage in (collective) self- and other-defense.

Iser also considers neighboring attempts within analytical philosophy, such as relational or bipolar theories of morality (Darwall, Wallace) and relational egalitarianism (Scheffler, Anderson). Finally, he is interested in whether such relational approaches can (and if so, how) be productively applied to our relationship to future persons, despite a lack of mutuality and the non-identity problem.

Select Publications

  • 鈥淪equential Sovereignty Between Authenticity and Justice,鈥 Philosophy and Public Issues 1 (July 2025), 35-44
  • Die Macht der Rechtfertigung. Perspektiven einer Kritischen Theorie der Gerechtigkeit (The Power of Justification. Perspectives of a Critical Theory of Justice), ed. together with Eva Buddeberg, Mahmoud Bassiouni, Anja Karnein, and Martin Saar, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2024, 631pp. (with an introduction by the editors, pp. 9-28)
  • 鈥淥bjectionable Objections. On Toleration, Respect, and Esteem,鈥 Justification and Emancipation. The Critical Theory of Rainer Forst, ed. by Amy Allen and Eduardo Mendieta, University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press 2019, 58-75
  • 鈥凌别肠辞驳苍颈迟颈辞苍,鈥 , ed. by Edward N. Zalta
  • 鈥淏eyond the Paradigm of Self-Defense? On Revolutionary Violence,鈥 The Ethics of War, ed. by Samuel Rickless and Saba Bazargan, New York: Oxford University Press 2017, 207-226
  • 鈥淩ecognition between States? Moving Beyond Identity Politics,鈥 Recognition in International Relations: Rethinking a Political Concept in a Global Context, ed. by Christopher Daase et al., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2015, 27-45

Education

  • PhD, Freie Universitaet Berlin (Germany)

Research Interests

  • Social, political and moral philosophy
  • Theories of recognition
  • Forms of Social Criticism
  • Just War Theory
  • Theories of freedom and of equality
  • (Global) Justice

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