Research areas
I am a lecturer in philosophy at the University of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, working mainly on the history of philosophy (17th C – current day) but also on issues in contemporary philosophy, such as environmental ethics, animal ethics, and the philosophy of climate change. I’ve worked extensively on the philosophical tradition known as ‘pessimism’, and have introduced the concept of ‘hopeful pessimism’ in relation to climate crisis. I am currently working on the topic of existential gratitude, and on animals and nature in the history of philosophy.
I am the author of four books: Hopeful Pessimism (Princeton University Press, 2025); Begetting: What Does It Mean To Create A Child? (Princeton 2024), Dark Matters: Pessimism and the Problem of Suffering (Princeton 2021), and Bayle, Jurieu, and the Dictionnaire Historique et Critique (Oxford University Press, 2016). Begetting was a finalist for the 2025 PROSE Awards from the American Publishers' Association; Dark Matters was a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2021, and received an Honourable Mention from the Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize.
From 2025-2028 I will be working on a project on ‘Existential Gratitude and Spirituality’, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, together with Dr King-Ho Leung (King’s College London).
PhD supervision
- Thomas Corbett
- Miguel De La Cal Moreno
Selected publications
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van der Lugt, M., 5 Mar 2025, Groene Amsterdammer.
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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van der Lugt, M., 21 Jan 2025, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 280 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
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van der Lugt, M., 30 Apr 2024, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 272 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
van der Lugt, M., 30 Apr 2024, Time Magazine.
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Open access
van der Lugt, M., 26 Apr 2022, Aeon.
Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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van der Lugt, M., 16 Nov 2021, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 450 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
van der Lugt, M., 1 Oct 2018, In: Modern Language Review. 113, 4, p. 714-741 28 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
van der Lugt, M., 26 Feb 2018, (E-pub ahead of print) In: History of European Ideas. 44, 3, p. 277-291 15 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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van der Lugt, M., 31 Jan 2017, In: De Achttiende Eeuw. Vol. 48, Nos. 1-2
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
van der Lugt, M., 1 Jan 2017, In: Journal of the History of Ideas. 78, 1, p. 27-50
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review