Romy Jaster

Romy Jaster is a philosopher at the Institute of Philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin, where she is responsible for the "Philosophy & the Public Sphere" research area. She is also part of the steering committee (and currently the speaker) of the DFG priority programme "Rethinking Disinformation" (Re:DIS). She works primarily on the epistemology of disinformation, especially fake news, conspiracy theories, political bullshit, and echo chambers. She also has a continuing research interest in abilities and free will, and has written a couple of papers on invitational issues related to academic freedom and so-called cancel culture. As a public philosopher, she mainly comments on disinformation and public discourse, specifically in the digital age - unfortunately entirely in German so far.

Romy studied at Bielefeld University, the University of Notre Dame, and Humboldt University of Berlin. Following research stays at the École normale supérieure in Paris and the Australian National University in Canberra, she received her PhD from Humboldt University in 2016 with a dissertation on abilities. She held academic positions at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and Humboldt University Berlin, and in 2022 she served as acting professor of metaphysics and philosophy of language at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. In the winter term 2024/25, she was a research fellow at the Human Abilities Centre in Berlin.


Her book Agents' Abilities was published open access with De Gruyter in 2020. In 2019, she co-authored the book Die Wahrheit schafft sich ab: Wie Fake News Politik machen (Truth Abolishes Itself: How Fake News Shapes Politics), published by Reclam.

Romy Jaster is an alumna of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) as well as the Carl and Max Schneider Foundation. Her dissertation received both the Wolfgang Stegmüller Prize and the De Gruyter Prize. In 2024, she was shortlisted for the Christa Serić Geiger Prize for her public engagement, and in 2025, she was nominated for the ars legendi price for her academic teaching. 


She is a co-initiator of the working group "Philosophy & the Public," jointly run by the German Society for Analytic Philosophy (GAP) and the German Philosophical Association (DGPhil); a founding and editorial member of the public philosophy platform PhilPublica; co-founder and co-director of the Forum for Culture of Debate (Forum für Streitkultur); and an advisor to the Science Media Center on the public relevance of current philosophical research.

From early 2019 to the end of 2022, she served as executive director of the German Society for Analytic Philosophy (GAP). In this role, she co-organized the GAP.11 conference “Philosophy and the Public” together with Geert Keil.


Here is some of her published work:

Agents' Abilities 

De Gruyter, Philosophical Analysis, 2020 (Open Access Download)

I provide an account of what it is for an agent to have an ability. According to the success view, abilities are all about success across possible situations. In developing and applying the view, the book elucidates the relation between abilities on the one hand and possibility, counterfactuals, and dispositions on the other; it sheds light on the distinction between general and specific abilities; it offers an understanding of degrees of abilities; it explains which role intentions and performances play for the having of an ability, how abilities relate to success and failure, and a lot more.


Papers: 


And here is current work in the pipeline: 

  • "Two Senses of 'Can': Addiction and Intentional Agency" with Sanja Dembić
  • "Justification and truth in conspiracy theory concepts" with Sanja Dembić


To get in touch, send me an email.

Photograph above (c) Johanna Wick