Colin McLear
Areas of Specialization:
German Idealism (especially Kant), History of Modern Philosophy,
Philosophy of Mind
Areas of Competence:
Aesthetics, Epistemology, Ethics, Political Theory
Appointments
2018–Nov. 2025: University of Nebraska–Lincoln | Associate
Professor | Lincoln, NE
2013–2018: University of Nebraska–Lincoln | Assistant
Professor | Lincoln, NE
2017: Oxford University | Visiting Fellow (Trinity Term), Trinity
College | Oxford, UK
2012–13: Cornell University | The Philosophical Review
Visiting Lecturer | Ithaca, NY
Education
2013: Ph.D, Philosophy |
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2011-12: DAAD, Visiting Scholar |
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, DE
2010-11: Visiting Student |
Heidelberg Universität, Heidelberg, DE
2000: BA, Philosopy and Music |
Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
Publications
Books
Forthcoming: Kant’s Fundamental Assumptions.
Co-edited with Colin Marshall. Oxford: Oxford University Press
2025: Kant’s Order of Reason.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Articles
2023: "Rationality: What Difference Does it Make?."
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research : 10.1111/phpr.12905
2020: "‘I Am the Original of All Objects’ – Apperception and
the Substantial Subject."
Philosophers’ Imprint 20(26): 1–38
2020: "Kantian Conceptualism/Nonconceptualism."
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
2020: "On the Transcendental Freedom of the Intellect."
Ergo 7(2): 35–104
2018: "Motion and the Affection Argument."
Synthese 195(11): 4979-4995
2016: "Kant on Perceptual Content."
Mind 125(497): 95–144
2015: "Kant: Philosophy of Mind."
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
2015: "Two Kinds of Unity in the Critique of Pure
Reason."
Journal of the History of Philosophy 53(1): 79–110
2014: "The Kantian (Non)-Conceptualism Debate."
Philosophy Compass 9(11): 769–90
2011: "Kant on Animal Consciousness."
Philosophers’ Imprint 11(15): 1–16
Book Chapters
Forthcoming: "Functional Unity in German Idealism & The
Contemporary Model of Mind." In James Conant, Jonas Held (eds.),
The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism and Analytic
Philosophy. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Forthcoming: "Letting the Dead Speak: On Sellars’
Kant." In Luz Christopher Seiberth, Mahdi Ranaee (eds.),
Reading Kant with Sellars. New York: Routledge
Forthcoming: "Kant on Time and Receptivity." In Colin McLear,
Colin Marshall (eds.),
Kant’s Fundamental Assumptions. Oxford: Oxford University
Press
2024: "The Unity of Nature and Freedom." In Anil Gomes,
Andrew Stephenson (eds.),
The Oxford Handbook of Kant. Oxford: Oxford University Press
2023: "Kant on Transcendental Freedom, Priority Monism, &
the Structure of Intuition." In Dai Heide, Evan Tiffany (eds.),
The Idea of Freedom: New Essays on the Kantian Theory of
Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press (co-authored with Derk
Pereboom)
2020: "Animals and Objectivity." In Lucy Allais, John
Callanan (eds.),
Kant on Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press
2017: "Intuition and Presence." In Anil Gomes, Andrew
Stephenson (eds.),
Kant and the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford: Oxford University
Press
2016: "Getting Acquainted with Kant." In Dennis Schulting
(ed.),
Kantian Nonconceptualism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Criticism
2019: "Kant and the Demands of Reflection: Merrit’s on
Kant on Reflection and Virtue."
SGIR Review 2(1): 42-59
2019: "The Mind’s ‘I’: On Béatrice Longuenesse’s, I, Me,
Mine: Back to Kant, and Back Again."
European Journal of Philosophy 27(1): 255–265
2018: "Waxman on Intuition and Apperception."
Critique, Author meets critics session
2016: "Acquaintance and Cognition: Comments on Lucy Allais,
Manifest Reality."
Critique, Author meets critics session
2014: "Comments on Stefanie Grüne, Blinde
Anschauung."
Critique, Author meets critics session
2010: "Three Skeptics and the Critique: Critical Notice of
Michael Forster’s Kant and Skepticism."
Philosophical Books 51: 228-244 (co-authored with Andrew
Chignell)
Reviews
2025: "Review of Jessica Leech, *Thinking of Necessity: A
Kantian Account of Modal Thought."
The Philosophical Review
2025: "Review of Markus Kohl, Kant on Freedom &
Rational Agency."
The Philosophical Review
2022: "Review of Henry Allison, Kant’s Conception of
Freedom."
Kantian Review 27(1): 159-65 (co-authored with Yoon Choi)
2021/22: "Review of Mathias Birrer, Kant und die
Heterogenität der Erkenntnisquellen."
Studi Kantiani 34:221-25
2020: "Review of Christine Korsgaard, Fellow
Creatures."
European Journal of Philosophy 28(1): 258-262
2018: "Review of Nicholas Stang, Kant’s Modal
Metaphysics."
The Philosophical Review 127(4): 523-528
2017: "Review of Henry Allison, Kant’s Transcendental
Deduction."
European Journal of Philosophy 25(2): 546–554
2016: "Review of Robert Brandom, From Empiricism to
Expressivism."
Ethics 126(3): 808-816
2015: "Review of Lanier Anderson, The Poverty of
Conceptual Truth."
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Presentations
Invited
2025: "TBA."
University of Kansas.
2025: "Seminar on Kant on Experience & Rationality."
University of Wisconsin Madison.
2023: "Kant and Contemporary Models of the Mind."
Beijing Normal University. December
2022: "Kant on Control & Rationality."
Keynote speaker, Graduate Conference on Freedom, Action, and
Control: Conceptions of Rational Agency in Kant and the European
Enlightenment; University of Bucharest (online). June
2022: "Reason’s Order: Kant on the Conditions of Rational
Agency."
Book workshop, University of Toronto. May
2021: "Self-Consciousness & Rationality."
Kantian Rationality Lab, Kaliningrad; Colloquium, Department of
Philosophy, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Conference on Kant on the
Self, Princeton University. May, October
2021: "Kant on the Receptivity of Time."
Kant’s Fundamental Assumptions, online workshop. August
2019: "Rationality: What Difference Does It Make?."
Boston Area Kant Colloquium, Boston MA. December
2019: "Self-Consciousness and the Freedom of Thought."
Chinese Kant Society, Peking University, Beijing, China. June
2019: "Comments on Abaci, ‘Kant’s Amodalism about Noumena and
Freedom’."
Pacific division of the American Philosophical Association,
Vancouver CA. April
2019: "Comments on Melissa Merritt, Kant on Reflection
and Virtue."
Central division of the American Philosophical Association, Denver
CO. February
2018: "On the Transcendental Freedom of the Intellect."
Colloquium, University of Nebraska–Omaha. November
2018: "Comments on McSweeney, ‘Abstract Amodal Perception’."
Kant and Analytic Metaphysics Conference, University of
Toronto. April
2018: "Self-Consciousness, Spontaneity, and the Freedom of
Thought."
Pacific division of the American Philosophical Association, San
Diego CA. March
2018: "Comments on Nunez, ‘Kant’s Pure General Logic’."
Central division of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago
IL. February
2018: "Animals & Objectivity."
Harvard University. January
2017: "I am the Original of All Objects: Kant on Apperception
& the Substantial Subject."
University of Toronto; UNC–Chapel Hill; Post-Kantian Seminar,
Oxford. February, May
2017: "The Conceptualism Debate."
Guest lecture, Graduate Seminar on Kant. The Ohio State
University. March
2016: "Concept, Intuition, & Structure."
Brown University History of Philosophy Roundtable. October
2016: "Apperception & the Substantial Subject."
Philosophy Colloquium, Rhode Island College. September
2016: "Self-Knowledge & Knowledge of Nature."
Colloquium for Classical German Philosophy, Humboldt-Universität zu
Berlin. July
2016: "Concepts & Abilities."
Symposium on Kant on Concepts. Pacific division of the American
Philosophical Association. April
2015: "Animals & Objectivity."
Colloquium for Classical German Philosophy, Humboldt-Universität zu
Berlin. December
2015: "Comments on Stefanie Grüne’s “Kant on the
Object-Dependence of Intuition”."
Workshop on Kant and the Mind, University of Oxford. January
2014: "Definition & Essence in the Metaphysical
Foundations of Natural Science."
Annual Meeting of the UK Kant Society, University of Oxford. August
2013: "The Role of the Understanding in Kant’s Philosophy of
Nature."
Contemporary Kantian Philosophy Workshop, University of
Luxembourg. October
2013: "Animals & Objectivity."
Kant on Animals Conference, University of the Witwatersrand, South
Africa. July
2013: "Kant on the Re2025ation of an Object."
University of Michigan; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign;
Illinois State University. January–February
2012: "Comments on Desmond Hogan’s ‘Handedness, Idealism, and
Freedom’."
Workshop on Force, Upstate New York Workshop in Early Modern
Philosophy. December
2012: "Comments on Andrew Specht’s ‘Rethinking the Neglected
Alternative’."
Meeting of the Creighton Club: New York Philosophical Association,
Hobart & William Smith Colleges. November
2012: "Comments on Lawrence Pasternack’s ‘Kant on Opinion’."
1st Biannual Meeting of the North American Kant Society.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. June
2010: "Comments on Adam Pautz’s ‘Why Consciousness Cannot
Just be in the Head: A New Argument against Biological Theories’."
Cornell University. March
Refereed
Teaching
2013–2025: University of
Nebraska–Lincoln
phil 971 - Graduate
Seminar on Topics in Kant (biennially)
phil 880 - Classical
German Idealism (triennially)
phil 871 - Graduate
Survey of Kant’s Critical Philosophy (biennially)
phil 232 - History of
Modern Philosophy (annually)
phil 105 - The
Philosophy of Food (biannually)
phil 101 - Introduction
to Philosophy
2017 (spring): Oxford
University
Topics in Kant (with Anil Gomes, Trinity Term)
2012–13: Cornell
University
writing
seminar - Politics and Human Nature
writing
seminar - Technology and Society
phil
101 - Introduction to Philosophy
Service
UNL: Faculty Senate (2024); the College of Arts and Sciences
Research Advisory Council (2018-25); Committee on Graduate Teaching
(2018-25); History Area Committee (2013-25); UNL Graduate Fellowship
Committee (2013-19); Placement Director (2015-23); Director of Transfer
Credit (2017-19); Speakers Committee (2013-22)
Referee Work: Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie (multiple
times), Australasian Journal of Philosophy (multiple times), British
Journal for the History of Philosophy (multiple times), Cambridge
University Press, Canadian Journal of Philosophy (multiple times),
Dialogue (multiple times), De Gryter, Ergo (multiple times), Erkenntnis,
European Journal of Philosophy (multiple times), Idealistic Studies,
History of Philosophy Quarterly (multiple times), HOPOS, Journal of the
History of Philosophy (multiple times), Journal of Modern Philosophy
(multiple times), Journal of Philosophical Research, Kantian Review
(multiple times), Kant Studies Online, Mind (multiple times), Minds
& Machines, Oxford University Press (multiple times), Pacific
Philosophical Quarterly (multiple times), Philosophical Quarterly
(multiple times), Philosophers’ Imprint (multiple times), Philosophical
Papers, Philosophy & Phenomenological Research (multiple times), Res
Philosophica (multiple times), Social Theory & Practice, South
African Journal of Philosophy, Southern Journal of Philosophy, SSHRC of
Canada, Studi Kantiani (multiple times), Synthese (multiple times), The
Philosophical Review (multiple times), The Philosophical Quarterly
(multiple times)
2018-25: Area editor (Kant/Post-Kantian Philosophy),
Ergo
2012-25: Philpapers.org Subject-area Editor: Kant’s Works, Kant
Phil Mind
2020: Fifth Biennial NAKS Conference Peer Review Committee
2016: Third Biennial NAKS Conference Peer Review Committee
2015-16: Program Committee member, Central Division APA
2015: Organizer, Chambers Conference, “Kant on Introspection,
Self-Consciousness, and Self-Knowledge.” University of Nebraska–Lincoln,
May
2013: Co-organizer, Second NAKS Biennial Meeting. Cornell
University, June
Languages
German (reading and speaking)
Latin (basic reading)
Awards
2016-17: CAS International Research Collaboration Grant,
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2016: ENHANCE CAS Award, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2015: International Travel Grant, University of
Nebraska–Lincoln
2012-13: Philosophical Review Lectureship
2011-12: DAAD Research Grant
2010-11: Heidelberg Exchange Fellowship