General notes

The information provided here regarding ongoing doctoral theses and completed or forthcoming Master’s and Bachelor’s theses, which I have supervised as a first or interim examiner, is intended to demonstrate that research topics from all periods in the fields of the philosophy of culture, comparative history of ideas, practical philosophy, the philosophy of history, religion, language and nature, aesthetics, intercultural studies and transdisciplinary approaches are welcome and feasible. In particular, the projects for which I have served as the primary supervisor have emerged from the broad spectrum of my teaching and research activities, which I have carried out over the past 30 years in Marburg, Istanbul and Oldenburg. Likewise, the regular ‘Colloquia for Theses’ provide an opportunity to identify topics and to present and discuss proposed research projects.

Doctoral theses

• Attitude and Reason – The History of Ideas Concerning the Concept of the Heart from Pascal through Rousseau to Schiller, Hegel and Marx (in progress).
• On the Relevance of the Platonic Idea in Essence and Effect (in progress).
• Vico’s Philosophical Reorientation: Did Vico Need Descartes? (in progress).

Master’s: Initial Assessment

• The Gezi Park protests in Turkey in 2013. Philosophical and socio-critical reflections with Henry David Thoreau and Herbert Marcuse, 2026 (in progress).
• Catastrophic Narrative. On the artistic approach in W. G. Sebald’s *The Rings of Saturn* (1995) in the context of Benjamin and Adorno’s aesthetic-mimetic theory, 2026 (in progress).
• Günther Anders and Martin Heidegger: Convergences and Divergences in the Philosophy of Technology, 2026 (in progress).
• Hegel’s Idealism as Allegorical Materialism. Materialist Premises as a Solution to the Aporetic Character of Absolute Idealism, 2025.
• Freedom versus ‘instrumental reason’ in Hegel’s philosophy of history, 2025.
• Herbert Marcuse’s Premises on ‘The Structure of Drive and Society’ (1955), 2024.
• An examination of the role of the individual in dynamic society according to Agnes Heller, 2024.
• Paradigms of Violence in the Early Writings Political Romanticism (1919) by Carl Schmitt and On the Critique of Violence (1921) by Walter Benjamin, 2024.
• Antonio Labriola’s Critical Communism and Walter Benjamin’s Theory of the Monad, 2024.
• On Love and the Heart in the Philosophy of Religion of Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Feuerbach and their Anthropological and Ethical Implications, 2023.
• Between Anthropology and Atheism: A Comparative Analysis of Feuerbach’s and Marx’s Approaches to the Critique of Religion, 2023.
• Herbert Marcuse: The Concept of Art and its Significance for Politics and Society, 2022.
• A Philosophical Comparison of Films Based on the Writings of Siegfried Kracauer, 2022.
• The Role of Reason in the Thought of William of Ockham and Philipp Melanchthon, 2021.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau as Natural Philosophers and Critics of the Slavery Issue, 2021.
• The issue of organ donation – can the concept of the freedom to die also apply here? An ethical examination with didactic considerations for teaching the subject of values and norms, 2021.
• The narrative structure of history – A discussion of the principle of poetic characters in Giambattista Vico, 2020.
• Schiller’s ode ‘To Joy’ (1786) and Beethoven’s ‘9th Symphony’ (1824), 2020.
• ‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience’ – David Henry Thoreau’s philosophical exposition from the perspective of Herbert Marcuse and the Fridays for Future movement, 2020.
• Reason and unreason as a fundamental conflict in the works of Pascal, Nietzsche and Camus, 2020.
• Islam and Europe: Between Tradition and Modernity, with Reference to Public Space in Hannah Arendt’s Thought, 2019.
• On ‘Jargon’ in the Philosophy of Karl Jaspers. A Critique of Theodor W. Adorno’s ‘Jargon of Authenticity’, 2017.
• The Role of Women in Islam and in Lower Saxony’s School Teaching Methods (Lower Secondary Level). A Textbook Analysis Based on the Qur’an and Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion, 2017.
• The Representation of Modern Men and their Absurd Manifestations in Samuel Beckett’s “The Trilogy” (1951) and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” (1925). Department of English, Yeditepe University, Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2013.
• Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” (1955). A Parody of the Mimesis of a Psychologised, Self-Reflexive Civilisation. Department of English, Yeditepe University, Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2010.
• Travelling and Writing as Metaphors for Self-Realisation in the Context of Exile: Jamal Mahjoub, “Travelling with Djinns” (2003) and Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, “Mimic Men” (1967). Department of English, Yeditepe University, Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2005.
• Totalitarianism in Literature: Critical Approaches to Franz Kafka’s *The Metamorphosis* (1912), Aldous Huxley’s *Brave New World* (1932) and George Orwell’s *Nineteen Eighty-Four* (1949). Department of English, Yeditepe University, Graduate Institute of Social Sciences, 2004.

Master’s: Second-opinion assessment

• Colours of the Soul: Van Gogh at the Crossroads of Art and Philosophy, 2026 (in progress).
• Religion, Violence and the Problem of Theodicy in Navid Kermani: The Voice of a Hybrid Intellectual in German Migration Society, 2025.
• Aesthetic Transformation of the Experience of Otherness through Art: The Case of Turkish Guest Workers in West Germany, 2025.
• Reasons for Believing in Conspiracy Myths. A Philosophical Investigation Based on Spinoza and Freud, 2024.
• Interference Feminism – An Agenda for Materialist-Feminist Eco-Activism, 2024.
• On John Locke’s Theory of Income, 2021.
• Human Enhancement – An Ethical Consideration of the Effects of Our Performance-Oriented Society, 2020.
• Polylogue in the Classroom – On the Potential Contribution of Philosophy Teaching to the Understanding of Cultures, 2015.

Bachelor’s thesis: Initial assessment

• Traces of French Materialism in Sculpture and the Sculptural Arts of the Enlightenment, 2026 (in progress).
• Thought and Existence in René Descartes: Discourse on Method (1634) and Meditations, 2026.
• The Infinite Approximation of Being to the Ideal: To what extent is antagonism an integral part of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of history and the origin of Karl Marx’s dialectical materialism, 2024.
• Historical-philosophical premises and consequences of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s text ‘Nature’ (1836), 2024.
• Robert Pfaller’s portrayal of Epicurus: How does Pfaller integrate Epicurus’s teachings?, 2023.
• The concept of ‘figura’ in Erich Auerbach: Structure and distinctive features of Dante’s imitation, taking into account Hegel’s theory of the epic, 2023
• The influence of a property-oriented economy on moral concepts in ancient Rome: A comparative study of the *Epistulae morales ad Lucilium* and the *Satyrica*, 2023.
• Is an ethics required to address the climate-damaging consequences of technological progress? An exposition of the ethics of responsibility according to Hans Jonas, 2023.
• Class consciousness as a bond and a possibility for conscious-historical action in the works of Georg Lukács and Theodor W. Adorno, 2023.
• The principle of responsibility in Hans Jonas as an engagement with the practical philosophy of Max Weber, Immanuel Kant and Ernst Bloch, 2022.
• The relationship between humanity and nature in the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, 2022.
• The Concepts of Ataraxia and Metanoia in Epicurus and Seneca: *Epistulae morales ad Lucilium*, 2021.
• On the Usefulness of Religion for Morality – On Evil in Human Beings According to Immanuel Kant, Based on the Work ‘Religion within Pure Reason’, 2021.
• The Function of Aesthetics – A Hermeneutic Methodology for Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s *Peace of Mind* (1949) as a Dialectical Element of Education, 2021.
• Resistant processes of thought and writing in Ahmet Altan’s essay ‘I Will Never See the World Again’ (2018) under conditions of censorship. 2021.
• ‘Storm’ and ‘Way Out’: The ‘Report for an Academy’ (1917) in Walter Benjamin’s Exegesis of Franz Kafka. 2020.
• Can Kant’s concept of nature serve to justify the preservation and protection of our environment?, 2020.
• On the necessity of an unconditional basic income according to Epicurus and Erich Fromm, 2019.
• The Conditions of Revolt in Albert Camus and the Myth of Humanism and Justice, 2019.
• John Newton’s Overcoming of Habitus. Implications of Love, Hope and Gratitude for the Conception and Formation of a New Lifestyle, Illustrated by Newton’s ‘The Progressive Work of Grace’, 2019 (expert report on the subject of sociology).
• ‘Sapere aude’ – Enlightenment in Kant and Seneca. The Idea of Enlightenment and the Emancipation of Slaves, 2019.
• The Concept of Humanity as a Vehicle for Social Change – A Comparison of Antonio Gramsci and Herbert Marcuse, 2018.
• Inflicting suffering and killing animals? Perspectives from animal ethics and the philosophy of culture, 2017.
• Cynicism – Historical anachronism or a timeless, meaningful way of life? 2016.

Bachelor’s: Second assessment

• On the Succession of Zarathustra: Torn Between Apollo and Dionysus, 2023.
• Myth and Mythology in Plato’s Symposium, 2023.
• Social and religious transformation of the Yazidi diaspora in Germany and its influence on the understanding of women’s roles, 2022.
• Passion/Ashura, Violence and Martyrs from the Perspective of Navid Kermani: Critique of Religion in Public Debate as an Engagement with the Historical Experience of Religion, 2022.
• The social role of religious minorities caught between urban and rural life in 18th-century Algeria, using the example of Muhammad ben ‘Abd ar-Rahman, 2020.
• An investigation into Kant’s practical philosophy, 2020.
• Are musicians the philosophers of the modern age? 2019.
• Tradition and innovation in Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s work *Stille und Umkehr* (1970). A musical-philosophical reflection, 2019 (expert report on the subject of musicology).
• Legal practice in Islam – Traditional interpretation and the modern development of law based on the Qur’an, 2018.
• The trend towards unstoppable bureaucracy – What opportunities and what dangers does Max Weber’s bureaucratic model of governance imply? 2018.
• The Concept of the Physician According to Karl Jaspers in the Present Day. What Makes a Good Physician? 2017 (expert report on the subject of medicine).
• On the Meaning of the Terms ‘Doubt’ and ‘Knowledge’ in René Descartes’ Meditations, 2017.
• Gender relations / gender roles among Turkish Muslims: the interplay between religious norms, habitus and challenges in the diaspora, using the headscarf debate as an example. A cultural-philosophical perspective, 2016.
• Nuran and Maya. Two portrayals of women between tradition and modernity – A comparison of the novels ‘Peace of Mind’ (1949) and ‘Serenade for Nadja’ (2010) by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar and Zülfi Levaneli, 2016.
• The Soft Space, 2016.
• Muslim Women in Germany – Potential Conflicts in Schools, 2015.
• Human Free Will versus Determinism – An Examination of Thomas Hobbes’s Compatibility Thesis, 2015.