Eric Watkins

Eric Watkins is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), specializing in Kantian philosophy, early modern philosophy, German Idealism, and the history of philosophy of science. He has held academic positions at UCSD since 2001, previously at Virginia Tech and Yale University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 1994, focusing on Kant’s Third Analogy of Experience under Karl Ameriks.

• Education:
• B.A. equivalent, Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin (1987)
• M.A., Philosophy, University of Notre Dame (1990)
• Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Notre Dame (1994)
• Research Interests: Kant’s pre-Critical and Critical works, Leibniz, Newton, Hume, German Idealists (Reinhold, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel), and the history of philosophy of science.

His research explores Kant’s philosophy of science, causality, cosmology, and the interplay between rationalism and empiricism. He has edited major works like Kant and the Sciences and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source Materials. His awards include the Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize (2005) and the Senate Distinguished Teaching Award (2009-10).

Watkins has organized conferences on Kant and the sciences and contributed to editorial boards of journals like Kant-Studien. His teaching spans courses on Kant, German Idealism, and the philosophy of religion, emphasizing primary texts and critical engagement with historical and contemporary debates.