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Professor Verena Wagner is a Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin and serves as the Executive Academic Director of the Berlin School of Mind and Brain. She leads the Philosophy of Mind research group and holds multiple leadership positions within the university, including membership on the Managing Committee and Steering Committee of the Berlin School of Mind and Brain. As of October 2025, she will also serve as a Fellow at the Max Planck School of Cognition. Additionally, she is a Member of the Akademie-Kolleg at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Professor Wagner's research focuses on the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of mind, with particular emphasis on cognitive neutrality, suspension of judgment, and related mental states. Her work explores how mental attitudes and activities relate to inquiry and deliberation (the "zetetic turn" in epistemology), advocating for a pluralist view on cognitive neutrality. She examines the nature of mental states before considering their normative profiles, noting that some forms of cognitive neutrality have agential components with implications for rationality. Her research also extends to deception (both self and other) and disinformation, with a specific focus on bullshitting as the provision of fake answers to questions under discussion. She has developed outreach projects to make philosophical work on fake answers accessible to broader audiences. Previously, she worked on free will debates, proposing a theory of freedom of action compatible with both determinism and indeterminism, and later applying compatibilist frameworks to the doxastic realm.
Professor Wagner leads several significant research projects, including the DFG-Priority Programme "Rethinking Disinformation (Re:DIS)," the Heidelberg Academy-funded project "Neutral by Choice: Cognitive Neuroscience meets Philosophy of Mind," and the DFG-funded "Thinking about Suspension" research network. Her work demonstrates a consistent trajectory toward understanding cognitive states that exist between belief and disbelief, with increasing attention to practical applications in the context of disinformation and AI systems. She collaborates extensively with cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers across multiple German institutions.
- Konstanz University Science Prize 2023 (Messmer Foundation) for her work on "Heiße Luft und leeres Gerede: Wie Sprache zu Bullshit wird. Interventionsversuche an Schule und Universität" (Hot Air and Empty Talk: How Language Becomes Bullshit. Intervention Attempts at School and University)
Professor Wagner actively mentors doctoral candidates and has supervised PhD projects such as Daniela Schuster's "Suspension of Judgment in Artificial Intelligence: Uncovering Uncertainty in Data-Based and Logic-Based Systems." She leads a research group comprising student assistants and collaborates with international scholars including Christoph Korn (Cognitive Neuroscience, Heidelberg), Hansjörg Neth (Social Psychology, Konstanz), Yulia Oganian (Cognitive Neuroscience, Tübingen), and Alexandra Zinke (Philosophy, Frankfurt). Her research is supported by substantial grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Baden-Württemberg Foundation.
Professor Wagner directs the Philosophy of Mind research group at Humboldt University, which includes student research assistants and an office manager. Her research environment fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, and psychology, creating a unique space where theoretical philosophical work directly informs empirical research and vice versa. The group's work on cognitive neutrality and disinformation has particular relevance in today's information landscape, addressing fundamental questions about how we should navigate uncertainty and deception in both personal cognition and artificial systems.
