PABLO HUBACHER HAERLE

As there has been some confusion about this, my first name is „Pablo“ and my last name is „Hubacher Haerle“.

If you would like to get in touch, send me an email at phubache@uni-koeln.de.

Research

First, I study the phenomenon of overthinking, what it is and how it occurrs in the psychiatric and non-psychiatric context.

• Rational Uncertainty and the Success Norm of Inquiry, 2026, Mind, forthcoming
• Is OCD Epistemically Irrational?, 2023, Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 30(2): pp. 133-146
  • Winner of the 2022 DGPPN Prize
• The Rational and the Sane, 2023, Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology, 30(2): pp. 155-158
  • Reply to comments by Carolina Flores and Brent Kious to my earlier paper

Second, I research the nature of unconscious motivation, especially social influences on our actions.

• Uncertain Action, 2026, Synthese, 207(1):23
• Scepticism about Self-Knowledge of Motives, 2025, The Monist, 108(1): pp. 92-104

Third, I try to understand how, given very different worldviews, we can engage in political disagreement respectfully and empathetically.

• Wittgenstein, Mouffe and the Depth of Political Disagreement, 2026, Synthese 207(1):8
• Das Paradox der Toleranz (mit Martin Beckstein), 2019, Zeitschrift Für Politische Theorie 10(2): pp. 169-192

Other peer-reviewed publications:

• What’s the Linguistic Meaning of Delusional Utterances? Speech Act Theory as a Tool for Understanding Delusions (with Julian Hofmann and Anke Maatz), 2023, Philosophical Psychology, 36(7): pp. 1–21
• Can Wittgenstein’s Philosophy account for Uncertainty in Introspection?, 2021, Wittgenstein-Studien, 12(1): pp. 145-163

My PhilPeople profile is here.

Outreach

• Overthinking wird Unterschätzt, Psychologie Heute
• Is OCD Epistemically Irrational?, Imperfect Cognitions
• If thinking is rational, what makes overthinking irrational?, Aeon+Psyche
• A Strange Kind of Blue — Wittgenstein looking at a Painting by Yves Klein, φ Magazine
• Was ist Gerechtigkeit? Geschichte der Gegenwart

Additionally, I have featured in the following media:

• Grübeln nervt—trifft aber einen Nerv der Zeit, SRF Online
• On the Irrationality of OCD, Philosopher’s Nest Podcast
• Philosophical Pathologies, Moral Sciences Club Podcast

Teaching

University of Cologne

• The Wartime Quartett (Anscombe, Foot, Midgley, Murdoch)
• Practicing Philosophical Writing
• Scepticism
• Self-Knowledge

University of Cambrige

• Political Philosophy
• Wittgenstein and his Successors (Anscombe, Austin)
• Philosophy of Mind
• Knowledge, Language and the World
• Set Texts (Plato, Descartes, Mill)
• Metaphysics
• Philosophy of Science (esp. Philosophy of Economics and Philosophy of Psychiatry)

Some student feedback:

„I’ve genuinely thoroughly enjoyed these lectures, so clear and with so many links to the reading, tackles questions well and used examples I can understand. I’ve found it a great overview, I really think I understand the general picture and some of the nuance before I even do the readings myself!“

„Our supervisions are very interactive. I felt really engaged because you consistently asked me questions to prompt and guide my thinking. I felt like my ideas were heard and considered. It wasn’t a one-sided, lecture style teaching, but much more of a give and take.“

„Pablo is one of the best supervisors I have had during my three years at Cambridge — he was extremely engaging and energising and was able to accommodate a wide range of my interests within political philosophy in the limited number of supervisions we had. I particularly appreciated his willingness to help me explore the connections between the supervision topics with my dissertation topic which helped me a lot! I found the teaching style to be very intuitive and accommodating for new ideas or directions of discussion. Pablo was very good at explaining complex ideas in a digestible way with original examples. I also learnt strategies for essay-writing applicable to my wider philosophy studies.“

Full teaching-dossier (including anonymous evaluations) coming soon.