Livia von Samson

I am a PhD candidate and Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (junior faculty member) at the Institute of Philosophy at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with interests in social and political philosophy, feminism, and epistemology — and the various ways these intersect.

In my doctoral thesis, In and Against the Family: A Hegelian Case for Abolition, I develop a Hegelian immanent critique of the family. I argue that the family promises love, autonomy, and security but is structurally unable to realise these goods on its own terms, and that this failure grounds the case for its abolition. The thesis is supervised by Rahel Jaeggi (Humboldt) and Rachel Fraser (Oxford / MIT).

Before my doctorate, I studied philosophy and music in Heidelberg, Berlin (at Humboldt and the University of the Arts), and Oxford. I also spent some time as a Fulbright scholar at MIT.

You can contact me at livia.samson [at] hu-berlin.de.

Academic Publications

Public Philosophy

Teaching