Andrew Bowie (philosopher)

{{Short description|British philosopher and professor}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

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| occupation = Philosopher

| nationality = British

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Andrew S. Bowie (born 1952) is Professor of Philosophy and German at Royal Holloway, University of London and Founding Director of the Humanities and Arts Research Centre (HARC).{{Cite web |title=Andrew Bowie |url=https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/andrew-bowie |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=Royal Holloway Research Portal |language=en}}

He has worked to promote a better understanding of German philosophy in the Anglophone analytical tradition - including the works of Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Gottfried von Herder, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Theodor W. Adorno, Jürgen Habermas, Albrecht Wellmer and Manfred Frank.{{Cite web |title=Introduction to German Philosophy by Andrew Bowie {{!}} Issue 53 {{!}} Philosophy Now |url=https://philosophynow.org/issues/53/Introduction_to_German_Philosophy_by_Andrew_Bowie |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=philosophynow.org}}

Frank and Habermas have spoken highly of his work in this area - with Habermas calling his work "masterly" and Frank calling him an "exceptional scholar", whose work represents "the most knowledgeable presentation in English of the history of the German contribution to so-called continental philosophy".{{Cite web |title=Introduction to German Philosophy: From Kant to Habermas {{!}} Wiley |url=https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Introduction+to+German+Philosophy:+From+Kant+to+Habermas-p-9780745625713 |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=Wiley.com |language=en}} The philosopher Charles Taylor has described his work on music as "excellent and densely argued".See {{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Charles |date=2016 |title=The Language Animal: The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity|url= http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674660205 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher= Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674660205 }}

He has translated the works of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling{{Cite web |last=OpenLibrary.org |title=On the history of modern philosophy by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling {{!}} Open Library |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL510119W/On_the_history_of_modern_philosophy |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=Open Library |language=en}} and Friedrich Schleiermacher.{{Cite web |last=OpenLibrary.org |title=Hermeneutics and criticism and other writings by Friedrich Schleiermacher {{!}} Open Library |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1852731W/Hermeneutics_and_criticism_and_other_writings |access-date=2025-05-12 |website=Open Library |language=en}} His recent work has focused on music and philosophy,{{Cite journal |last=Garratt |first=James |date=2010-08-01 |title=Music, Philosophy, and Modernity. By Andrew Bowie. |url=https://academic.oup.com/ml/article-abstract/91/3/429/1044163?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Music and Letters |volume=91 |issue=3 |pages=429–431 |doi=10.1093/ml/gcq027 |issn=0027-4224|url-access=subscription }} and Adorno on the nature of philosophy. In addition to his philosophical work on music, he is a keen jazz saxophonist and has played with leading contemporary jazz musicians such as

Al Casey and Humphrey Lyttelton.See his [http://pure.rhul.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/andrew-bowie_3d787cff-bd1c-4349-b003-8f501c909611.html biography] on the Royal Holloway website and the [https://soundcloud.com/andy-bowie Soundcloud page for the Andy Bowie Quartet]

He did his doctoral research on "History and the Novel" (1980) at the University of East Anglia, where he was taught by the renowned German writer and scholar W. G. Sebald (who later cited Bowie's work on Alexander Kluge in his Campo SantoSee W.G. Sebald, Campo Santo (London, Random House: 2005), pp. 73, 74, 214.). He studied German philosophy at the Free University of Berlin. He was Professor of Philosophy at Anglia Ruskin University until 1999. He was also Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Philosophy department of University of Tübingen. He is on the Advisory Council for the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

His elder brother, Angus, is a classicist.