Iraklis Ioannidis is a PhD candidate in Critical Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He holds a MA degree (Ptyhion) in Communication and Media studies from the University of Athens, a Master of Arts in Communication Theory from Illinois State University and a Mlitt in Analytic Philosophy from the University of Glasgow. He also has seven years of professional experience in operational and product development marketing (in Greece, France, and the UK).
His current research reflects his philosophical interests. Primarily concerned with the philosophy of existence, his research focuses on the phenomenon of altruism. Philosophizing about altruism is maybe the most challenging task for philosophy. Traditional methods fail to account for the phenomenon without some paradox involved. Traditional epistemology consisting of arguments to be proven creates all sorts of paradoxes – logical and performative. Altruism confronts philosophy as well as life with their limits.
Inspired by post-structuralism, American pragmatism, and feminist psychoanalysis, his approach is attempting a reversal of classical phenomenology and epistemology by proposing the concept of unbracketing – a radical form of intertextuality. This ‘epistemological anarchy’ has prompted him to be on the outlook for news ways of philosophizing. The unbracketing constitutes a logic of finding resemblances and connections rather than differences and categories. It allows space/time of expression by embracing all types of expression.
Such a reversal has allowed him to focus on the notions of givenness and the gift in novel ways. The philosophy of the gift comes to be a philosophy of life. Thinking in classical terms, with(in) Being, the Other is the Gift, my counterpart to death. Other-wise, the Other provides me time to express my decision (logos) about life/death.