Dr. Jochen Bojanowski

Biography

Jochen Bojanowski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Illinois University. His primary research focus is on moral and political philosophy, with an emphasis on Kant’s theory of freedom and moral autonomy. Bojanowski articulates and defends Kant’s incompatibilist account of free capacity and moral autonomy, laying a foundational groundwork for understanding human rights and their correlative duties. His recent book, 'Fraternal Justice' (Geschwisterliche Gerechtigkeit), attempts to interpret the value of sorority and fraternity in light of the contingency of human lives, engaging with central questions about how distributive justice reflects the contingent differences responsible for social, biological, and circumstantial luck. He argues that a sororal and fraternal attitude towards people involves rejecting distributive advantages based on brute luck differences, advocating for a society guided by luck-neutralizing principles. His ongoing book project, 'Kant’s Moral Idealism,' aims to provide a fresh interpretation of Kant's metaethical views and explore the complexities of moral life as it exists beyond Kant’s initial assumptions. He has published numerous articles addressing these core topics in philosophy.

Research Interests