Cyril McDonnell

One of my main areas of research in philosophy is Heidegger’s controversial development of Husserl’s idea of phenomenology in the early decades of the twentieth century. I also have research interests in: Brentano’s modification of the scholastic concept(s) of intentionality; the unfolding of 'scientific' and 'hermeneutic' methods of enquiry in the origins of late nineteenth and early twentieth century phenomenology, from Brentano and Dilthey, to Husserl, Heidegger and Levinas; Kant’s objections to natural theology and subsequent post-Kantian philosophy of religion as advanced by Hegel, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard and Desmond; Fichte on moral consciousness; the question of the proper relation of morality to law; the concept and moral justification(s) of punishment; the history and concept of rights; the concepts of teaching and learning and the issue of their 'causal relation' in the philosophy of education.