Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo

Welcome. I am a writer and philosopher based at IIFs-UNAM, in Mexico. Previously, I held postdoctoral and visiting positions at Rutgers and NYU. I received my Ph.D. from Oxford.

I work at the intersection of epistemology and philosophy of mind; my focus is on sensory experience. My writing for the general public — on philosophy, cinema and literature — has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and in Spanish in Letras Libres.

Research

Absence and objectivity
On the veridicality of absence experience
Philosophy & Phenomenological Research, 2025

When is a concept a priori?
On the acquisition of moral and mathematical concepts
Noûs, 2024

Virtual terrors
On whether we can experience the suffering of others
Noûs, 2023

What do we see when we see total darkness?
On universals as objects of perception
European Journal of Philosophy, 2017

Essays & reviews

‘Give me all the power’
On music and authoritarianism in Latin America
New York Review of Books, 2023

Deadly myths
On violence and magic in Latin American literature
New York Review of Books, 2022

Carving up the amorphous lump
On the philosophy of Borges’ ‘Funes the memorious’
Times Literary Supplement, 2019

An exhibition of shadows
On the mathematics of symmetry and space
Times Literary Supplement, 2019

Una guía de Berlín
On Nabokov
Letras Libres, 2013

Saludos desde Ciudad Cruz
A tribute to Calvino
Letras Libres, 2013

Media

An empathy machine (talk & interview). BBC Radio 4

Teaching

Seminario de investigación: syllabus, carpeta
UNAM, 2025

Epistemology
Rutgers, Fall 2023

Minds, machines, and persons
Rutgers, Spring 2023

Cinema and the mind
Oxford, Trinity 2021

CV
PhilPapers
emmanuel.ordonezangulo[a]filosoficas.unam.mx