Bernard Reginster is Romeo Elton Professor of Natural Theology and Professor of Philosophy. He studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and Münster (Germany), and music at the Académies of Uccle and Bouillon (Belgium). He earned his PhD in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been teaching at Brown University since 1994 where he received a John Rowe Workman Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Humanities. He reveived a Laurence S. Rockefeller Fellowship, Princeton University Center for Human Values, a National Humanities Center Fellowship, and a Cogut Center for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, Brown University. As Chesler-Mallow Senior Faculty Research Fellow at the Pembroke Center, he also directed the Pembroke Seminar in 2007-08. He trained an Affiliate Scholar at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and received an Erikson Scholarship from the Erikson Institute at the Austen Riggs Center where he now serves on the Council of Scholars. He chaired the department of philosophy at Brown for 11 years and he also founded the Program for Ethical Inquiry at Brown University in 2011, which he directed until 2021. He was most recently the John Findlay Visiting Professor at Boston University.
|
"The Promise of Friendship.", Routledge, 2026, pp. 226-238.
|
|
The Will to Nothingness. Oxford University Press, 2021.
|
| Reginster, Bernard. "Affirmation and Absurdity." Philos Phenomenol Res, vol. 92, no. 3, 2016, pp. 785-791. |
| Reginster, Bernard. "Ressentimento, poder e valor." Cad. Nietzsche, vol. 37, no. 1, 2016, pp. 44-70. |
| Reginster, Bernard. "Nietzsche, Proficiency, and the (New) Spirit of Capitalism." The Journal of Value Inquiry, vol. 49, no. 3, 2015, pp. 453-477. |
|
"Art and Affirmation.", Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 14-38.
|
| Reginster, Bernard. "Honesty and Curiosity in Nietzsche’s Free Spirits." Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 51, no. 3, 2013, pp. 441-463. |
|
"Autonomy and Selfhood as the Basis of Morality.", cambridge univeristy press, 2012, pp. 387-433.
|
| Reginster, Bernard. "Three Views of Otherness." Pastoral Psychology, vol. 62, no. 4, 2012, pp. 437-449. |
| Reginster, Bernard. "Knowledge and Selflessness: Schopenhauer and the Paradox of Reflection." European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 16, no. 2, 2008, pp. 251-272. |
| Reginster, B. "Review: Julian Young: Nietzsche's Philosophy of Religion." Mind, vol. 117, no. 465, 2008, pp. 237-241. |
| REGINSTER, BERNARD. "Nietzsche’s New Darwinism." Philos Phenomenol Res, vol. 75, no. 1, 2007, pp. 227-230. |
| Reginster, Bernard. "Social Externalism and Solipsism: Remarks on Lynne Baker’s “First-Person Externalism”." The Modern Schoolman, vol. 84, no. 2, 2007, pp. 171-184. |
| Reginster, Bernard. "What is New in “Nietzsche’s New Darwinism?”." International Studies in Philosophy, vol. 39, no. 3, 2007, pp. 99-116. |
|
The Affirmation of Life. Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism. Harvard University Press, 2006.
|
| Reginster, Bernard. "Nietzsche on Pleasure and Power." Philosophical Topics, vol. 33, no. 2, 2005, pp. 161-191. |
| Reginster, Bernard. "Happiness as a Faustian bargain." Daedalus, vol. 133, no. 2, 2004, pp. 52-59. |
| REGINSTER, BERNARD. "Self-Knowledge, Responsibility, and the Third Person." Philos Phenomenol Res, vol. 69, no. 2, 2004, pp. 433-436. |
19th and 20th century philosophy, ethics, moral psychology, philosophy of psychoanalysis.
Professor Reginster's research focuses on issues in ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of mind in late modern and contemporary philosophy. In addition to many articles on these issues in the 19th century 20th century, he has published two books, The Affirmation of Life. Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism (Harvard Press, 2006) and The Will to Nothingness (Oxford University Press, 2021), with a third forthcoming, Ressentiment (Cambridge University Press). His current research is in the philosophy of the emotions, with particular emphasis on the social emotions, such as shame, resentment, envy, and love, and the existential emotions, such as boredom.
My research has focused primarily on issues in ethics, metaethics, and moral psychology in 19th century and contemporary philosophy. I have a longstanding interest in the philosophy of well-being--including happiness and meaningfulness--in 19th century philosophy (especially Schopenhauer and Nietzsche), in which I have published many articles and a book, The Affirmation of Live (Harvard University Press, 2006). I am also interested in issues in metaethics and moral psychology in the same period, including both Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory. In addition to several papers, I have published a book on the metaethical and moral psychological underpinnings of Nietzsche's famous critique of Christian morality, The Will to Nothingness (Oxford University Press, 2021). My current research is in the philosophy of the emotions, with a particular emphasis on the social emotions, such as shame and resentment, as well as envy and love, and the existential emotions, such as boredom and anxiety. In addition to several articles on these topics, I have a nearly completed book, Ressentiment (Cambridge University Press). In preparation are several papers on shame, as well as another book, The Aim of Revenge, which explores the nature and motivation of revenge.
Books
Selected articles
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 1992 | PhD | University of Pennsylvania |
| 1988 | MA | University of Pennsylvania |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Krueger, Joachim | Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences |
| CLPS 0710 - The Psychology and Philosophy of Happiness |
| EMBA 2200 - The Spirit of Entrepreneurship |
| PHIL 0080 - Existentialism |
| PHIL 0650 - Psychology and Philosophy of Happiness |
| PHIL 0991 - Status Anxiety |
| PHIL 0991E - Identity and Authenticity |
| PHIL 0991O - The Meaning of Life |
| PHIL 1320 - Schopenhauer's Ethical Thought |
| PHIL 1340 - Nietzsche |
| PHIL 1501 - Well-Being |
| PHIL 1592 - Status Anxiety |
| PHIL 1820 - Philosophy and Psychoanalysis |
| PHIL 1910F - Schopenhauer's Ethical Thought |
| PHIL 2170 - Resentment |
| PHIL 2170I - Guilt and Shame |
| PHIL 2170J - Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality |
| PHIL 2170L - Shame |
| PHIL 2800 - Dissertation Workshop |
