Felipe León
Research Group: HPhil
I am Assistant Professor of Contemporary Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Lisbon and a Full Member of the HPhil research group at the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon.
My academic background is in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and the cognitive sciences. In recent years, I have primarily worked in the fields of collective intentionality and 4E (i.e. embodied, enactive, embedded, and extended) cognition. Topics I have researched, taught, and published on include joint attention, empathy, shared emotions, collective identities, and second-personal normativity.
My work on phenomenology spans classical figures, such as Husserl, (early) Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty, and lesser-known representatives of the phenomenological movement, including Adolf Reinach, Karl Löwith, and K. E. Løgstrup.
Before coming to Lisbon, I held positions as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Assistant Professor at Linköping University and the University of Copenhagen. I completed my PhD in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen in 2016 and received a cand.mag. degree (Danish MA equivalent) in philosophy from the same institution in 2013. In Spring 2015, I was a visiting research scholar in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. I earned BA and MA degrees in philosophy from the National University of Colombia, where I am originally from.
E-mail: felipe.leon@edu.ulisboa.pt
Selected Publications
León, F. and Meindl, P. (forthcoming). The Stranger and the Homecomer: Two Case Studies for a Phenomenology of Belonging. In L. Dolezal and D. Petherbridge (eds.), Phenomenology of Belonging, State University of New York Press.
León, F. (2026). Intersubjectivity, Sociality, Institution: Perspectives from Merleau-Ponty. In R. Mendoza-Canales (ed.) Merleau-Ponty: Institution-Ontology-Politics, Leiden: Brill, pp. 197-221.
Zeiler, K., Morberg Jämterud, S., León, F., Andersson, A., Birberg Thornberg, U., Blystad, I., Divanoglou, A., Eklund, A., Engblom, D., Levi, R. (2026). Affective dimensions of fatigue in post COVID-19 condition: An interdisciplinary investigation across phenomenology and biomedicine. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-026-10151-5
Levi, R., Birberg Thornberg, U., Blystad, I., Divanoglou, A., Engblom, D., León, F., Morberg Jämterud, S., Zeiler, K. (2025). Reconceptualising rehabilitation research via an enactive framework and a radically interdisciplinary cross-analysis: a study protocol on fatigue in post COVID-19 condition (PCC). Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 57, jrm42254. DOI: 10.2340/jrm.v57.42254
León, F. (2024) Karl Löwith on the I-thou relation and interpersonal proximity. Continental Philosophy Review 57, 141-163. DOI: 10.1007/s11007-024-09632-8
León, F. (2024). Romantic love and the first-person plural perspective. Inquiry. DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2024.2358335
León, F. (2023). Being one of us: we-identities and self-categorization theory. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. DOI: 10.1007/s11097-023-09923-0
León, F. & Zahavi, D. (2023). Consciousness, philosophy, and neuroscience. Acta Neurochirurgica 165, 833-839. [Translated into Chinese: León, F. and Zahavi, D. (2024). Yishi zhexue he shenjingkexue, trans. Shi Kai and Han Yongjin, Philosophical Analysis 2024 15(4): 186-195+199.]
León, F., Zandersen, M., Meindl, P., Zahavi, D., (2022). The distinction between second-person and third-person relations and its relevance for the psychiatric diagnostic interview. In M. Biondi, A. Picardi, M. Pallagrosi, and L. Fonzi (eds.), The Clinician in the Psychiatric Diagnostic Process. Cham: Springer, pp. 51 – 69.
León, F. (2022). Attention in joint attention: from selection to prioritization. In M. Wehrle, D. D’Angelo, and E. Solomonova (eds.), Access and Mediation. Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Attention. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 65 – 90.
León, F. (2021). Joint attention without recursive mindreading: on the role of second-person engagement. Philosophical Psychology, 34(4), 550-580.
León, F. (2021). Collective intentionality, we-identity, and the role of narratives in the constitution of friendship. In J. Nöller (Ed.), The Unity of a Person: Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, pp. 185-206.
León, F. (2020) For-me-ness, for-us-ness, and the we-relationship. Topoi, 39/3, 547-558.
Meindl, P., León, F., and Zahavi, D. (2020). Buber, Levinas, and the I-thou relation. In M. Fagenblat, and M. Erdur (eds.), Levinas and Analytic Philosophy. Second-Person Normativity and the Moral Life. New York: Routledge, pp. 80-100.
Henriksen, M. G., León, F., and Zahavi, D. (2020). Center for Subjectivity Research: history, contribution, and impact. Danish Yearbook of Philosophy, 53, 162-174.
León, F., Szanto, T., & Zahavi, D. (2019). Emotional sharing and the extended mind. Synthese, 196(12), 4847-4867.
León, F. and Zahavi, D. (2019) How we feel: collective emotions without joint commitments. ProtoSociology – An International Journal and Interdisciplinary Project 35, 117-134.
León, F. (2019) Autism, social connectedness, and minimal social acts. Adaptive Behavior 27 (1), 75-89.
León, F. (2017). Dación y reflexión. Una investigación fenomenológica. Bogotá, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
León, F. and Zahavi, D. (2016). Phenomenology of experiential sharing: the contribution of Schutz and Walther. In A. Salice. and H.-B. Schmid, The Phenomenological Approach to Social Reality: History, Concepts, Problems. Cham: Springer, pp. 219-234.
León, F. (2016). An interactionist approach to shared cognition: some prospects and challenges. In T. Szanto and D. Moran (eds.), The Phenomenology of Sociality: Discovering the ‘We’. New York: Routledge, pp. 159-172.
León, F. (2015). Reflexión, objetivación, tematización: sobre una crítica heideggeriana de Husserl. Investigaciones Fenomenológicas, Vol. Monográfico 5, 2015, 159-181.
León, F. (2013). Shame and selfhood. Phänomenologische Forschungen 2012, 193-211.
León, F. (2013). Experiential other-directness: to what does it amount? Tidsskrift for Medier, Erkendelse og Formidling1(1), 21-38.