Alejandro Naranjo Sandoval Portrait

Assistant Professor

2298 Social Science and Humanities

Education

  • Ph.D., Philosophy, Princeton University, 2021
  • B.A., Philosophy (summa cum laude) and Mathematics (cum laude), Cornell University, 2015

About

Originally hailing from Mexico City, my main areas of interest are Kant and other philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries (especially Leibniz). I also have side interests in philosophy of mind, social philosophy, logic and philosophy of logic, and philosophy of language. Before coming to Davis, I completed my PhD in philosophy in 2021 at Princeton University.

Research Focus

My research concerns the complicated relation between German philosophers Immanuel Kant and Gottfried Leibniz. I argue that Kant's philosophy of mind is closer to Leibniz's than has previously been acknowledged. Nonetheless, Kant's view has a distinctive advantage over Leibniz's: it allows for the formation of true judgements about individuals. Along the way, I provide an account of Kant's elusive notion of an intuition within its historical context in 18th century German philosophy.

In addition to my historical work, I have research interests in the philosophy of race and social ontology. I have recently argued that we should reject varieties of social constructionist accounts of races which ground the reality of race on stereotypes or other belief-like representations.

Awards

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Short-Term Fellowship under the supervision of Marcus Willaschek, 2021