Pol Vandevelde (Ph.D. Université catholique de Louvain)
is the Donald J. Schuenke Chair in Philosophy at Marquette University (Milwaukee, USA). He specializes in 19th and 20th century European philosophy (especially German romanticism, phenomenology [Husserl, Heidegger], contemporary French and German philosophy), interpretation theory, hermeneutics, and critical theory (especially Habermas and Apel).
His research (which includes 21 books, 90 articles and book chapters, and 124 presentations in English, French, and German) focuses on two interrelated issues: first, the question of what a subject is, especially with regard to phenomena that probe the subject’s boundaries or reveal its vulnerabilities, such as embodiment, empathy, charity, memory, suffering, forgiveness, and the extended mind; second, the question of interpretation and translation in its linguistic, epistemological, and ethical aspects (he has translated several books from German into French and English, and from French into English). Two of his books received an award, the Premier Prix de l’Académie Royale de Belgique (1991) and the Prix Cardinal Mercier, awarded by the Université catholique de Louvain (2014).
He accepted invited professorship in Chile and India. He is the co-editor of the bi-lingual journal Études phénoménologiques - Phenomenological Studies (Peeters, Leuven) and co-director of the book series Issues in Phenomenology and Hermeneutics (Bloomsbury)
-
Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Selected Writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Volume III Ancient Sources, Modern Appropriations, edited and translated by Pol Vandevelde and Arun Iyer. London: Bloomsbury, 2025, 242 p.
Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Selected Writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer: Volume II Ethics, Aesthetics and the Historical Dimension of Language, edited and translated by Pol Vandevelde and Arun Iyer. London: Bloomsbury, 2022, 323 p.; paperback edition, 2024
-
“What Do We Do When We Interpret?” in Hans-Georg Gadamer, The Selected Writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Volume III Ancient Sources, Modern Appropriations, edited and translated by Pol Vandevelde and Arun Iyer. London: Bloomsbury, 2025, 1-18.
“Avons-nous encore besoin de philosophie?” Itinéraires augustiniens 73, 2025, 41-46.
“Le sens : entre signification logique et représentation mentale,” in Phénoménologie, esthétique, politique. Mélanges offerts à Danielle Lories, ed. Sylvain Camilleri and Olivier Depré. Leuven: Peeters, 2023, 11-34
“¿Atestación o parrhesía? La poética de la verdad en Ricoeur y Foucault,” trans. Andrés Gallardo and Jorge Montiel, in La Odisea de sí. Paul Ricoeur: atestación y reconocimiento, ed. Beatriz Contreras Tasso and Patricio Mena Malet. Madrid: Tecnos, 2023, 171-193.
“Dichtung as a Poetics of Thinking”, in “Dichtung: A Symposium,” Gatherings, The Heidegger Circle Annual 13 (2023): 252-255; “Response,” 261-262.
“Language and ontology,” in “Translators’ Introduction,” in Hans-Georg Gadamer, Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Historical Dimension of Language: The Selected Writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer Volume II, ed. and trans. Pol Vandevelde and Arun Iyer. London: Bloomsbury, xi-xxiv, 2022
“The Scaffolding Role of a Natural Language in the Formation of Thought: Edmund Husserl’s Contribution,” in Language and Phenomenology, ed. Chad Engelland. London: Routledge, 2021, 194-211
“Charity in Interpretation: Principle or Virtue? A Return to Gregory the Great,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, special issue on Catholicism and Phenomenology, ed. Michael Bowler and Mirela Oliva, 2021, 95 (3): 505-526
“La vulnérabilité au cœur de l’humain: comment Levinas peut nous aider à comprendre la déshumanisation,” in L’humanité à l’épreuve de la déportation, ed. Cathy Leblanc et Jean-François Petit. Lille: Geai Bleu Éditions, 2021, 35-59
“Between Appropriation and Transmission: The Romantic Thread in Heidegger’s Existential Notion of Understanding,” in The Palgrave Handbook of German Romantic Philosophy, ed. Elizabeth Millán. London: Palgrave McMillan, 2020, 607-630.
“The Romantic Hermeneutic Ideal of ‘Understanding Better’ as a Hermeneutic Imperative,” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94 (2020): 91-107.
-
"Textualismo, originalismo y pluralismo: las tensiones en la interpretación de la Constitución de EE. UU.," Ciclo Pol Vandevelde en el Doctorado en Derecho, Universidad central de Chile, Santiago, Chile, May 30, 2025
"La ética en la interpretación: aspectos filosóficos y sociales, Primera parte," Ciclo Pol Vandevelde en el Doctorado en Derecho , Universidad central de Chile, Santiago, Chile, May 27, 2025
"La ética en la interpretación: aspectos filosóficos y sociales, Segunda parte," Ciclo Pol Vandevelde en el Doctorado en Derecho, Universidad central de Chile, Santiago, Chile, May 28, 2025
"Las humanidades frente a la crisis de la democracia," Charla y conversaciones, Universidad central de Chile, Santiago, Chile, May 29, 2025
"La filosofía en diálogo con el derecho y las humanidades," Ciclo Pol Vandevelde en el Doctorado en Derecho, Universidad central de Chile, Santiago, Chile, May 28, 2025
“An Interactive Reality: Husserl’s Contribution to the Extended Mind Thesis,” Metaphysical Society of America, Atlanta, March 2025.
“Levinas: la subjetividad como vulnerabilidad, Seminario Internacional: Reflexiones sobre Perdón, Gratitud y Vulnerabilidad en la Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile, December 9, 2024.
“La gratitud como reconocimiento de la vulnerabilidad,” Seminario Internacional: Reflexiones sobre Perdón, Gratitud y Vulnerabilidad en la Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile, December 9, 2024.
“El perdón como el remedio de nuestra vulnerabilidad,” Seminario Internacional : Reflexiones sobre Perdón, Gratitud y Vulnerabilidad en la Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile, December 10, 2024.
“Vulnerabilidad, solidaridad, responsabilidad. Las raíces de un yo comunitario,” Jornada de estudios de filosofía y teología, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, Chile, December 12, 2024.
“‘We Always Interpret Differently’ (Gadamer): How the Difference in Interpretation is at the Service of Identity,” Metaphysical Society of America, New York, March 2024.
“Benevolence and Love as Both a Moral and Epistemic Virtue, or What is Ethical in Interpretation?,” in Seminario Internacional: Fenomenología y Teología en Diálogo, Alberto Hurtado Universidad, Santiago, Chile, January 10, 2024.
"La contribution de Husserl à la thèse de l’‘esprit étendu,'“ Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, October 2023
"The Ethical Aspect of Interpretation as Re-enactment in Husserl and Gadamer," North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics, Calgary, Canada, September 2023
"L’être du travailleur entre labeur et œuvre : L’expérience de Varlam Chalamov," Université catholique de Lille Lille, France, March 9, 2023
“Vulnerability, Solidarity, Responsibility,” Keynote Address, Conference “Being Interconnected,” St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India, February 22, 2023
“The Dimension of Language,” Seminar Series on the Selected Writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jnanapravaha Mumbai Institute, India, December 16, 2022 (with Arun Iyer).
"The Beautiful," Seminar Series on the Selected Writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jnanapravaha Mumbai Institute, India, December 14, 2022 (with Arun Iyer).
"The Good," Seminar Series on the Selected Writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jnanapravaha Mumbai Institute, India, December 9, 2022 (with Arun Iyer).
“Accounting for the Sense of Experience in Terms of Implicit Beliefs,” Philosophy Colloquium, Duquesne University, October 2022
“Believing-that and Believing-in: How Lived-experience Generates Meaning,” Theologische Fakultät, University of Freiburg, June 2022.
"La part éthique: que reste-t-il de la personne dans l'idéalisation scientifique?," Université catholique de Lille, Lille, France, May 2022
"The Influence of Plato’s Philebus on Davidson’s and Gadamer’s Metaphysics of Interpretation," The Metaphysical Society of America, Milwaukee, March 2022
