Lea Ypi, PhD

Professorin für Politische Theorie

London School of Economics and Political Science

Australian National University, Canberra

Geboren 1979 in Tirana
Laurea in Philosophie und Laurea Specialistica, Literatur, Universität La Sapienza, Master of Research, Politikwissenschaft, und PhD in politischer Theorie, European University Institute

Arbeitsvorhaben

The Idea of Moral Socialism

Lea Ypi offers a critique of capitalism and a defence of socialism that focuses on the Enlightenment idea of freedom as moral agency. She makes an ethical case for socialism by exploring the political implications of the traditional definition of the Enlightenment as “the emergence of human beings from their self-incurred immaturity.” The project focuses on three main themes: the critique of reason as the foundation of a new (post-capitalist) vision of society, the political implications of an analysis of freedom focused on the idea of human beings as ends in themselves, and the importance of a critical philosophy of history for resurrecting hope. Ypi explores these topics from both a historical and an analytical perspective, which draws on the history of philosophy, contemporary critical theory, and liberal theories of justice, while also re-examining traditional Marxist interpretations of political and economic institutions.

Recommended Reading

White, Jonathan, and Lea Ypi. The Meaning of Partisanship. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Ypi, Lea. The Architectonic of Reason: Purposiveness and Systematic Unity in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Oxford University Press, 2021. German: Die Architektonik der Vernunft: Zweckmäßigkeit und systematische Einheit in Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Translated by Antonia Grunert. Suhrkamp, 2024.
—. Indignity: A Life Reimagined. Allen Lane, 2025. German: Aufrecht: Überleben im Zeitalter der Extreme. Translated by Eva Bonné. Suhrkamp, 2025.