- Monographs
- Edited Books
- Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
- Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
- Journal Articles and Book Chapters without Peer Review
- Special Journal Issues
- Book Reviews
- Dictionary Entry
- Working Paper
- Newspaper and Magazine Articles
- Theses (in German)
- Translations (from English to German)
- Other Publications
Monographs
2022 No Other Planet: Utopian Visions for a Climate-Changed World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Reviewed in:
- Centre for the Study of Governance & Society, King’s College London (Duncan Bell)
- Environmental Politics (Joe P. L. Davidson)
- Global Policy (Ruth Houghton)
- Contemporary Political Theory (Benjamin L. McKean)
- Cambridge Review of International Affairs (Carl Death)
- Political Science Quarterly (Joel Alden Schlosser)
- Contemporary Political Theory (Matthew Benjamin Cole)
- Freeside Europe Online Academic Journal (Zsolt Czigányik)
- Oxford Political Review (Wallerand Bazin)
- Review of Politics (Nicole Rogers)
- Political Theory (Didier Zúñiga)
- Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie (Darrel Moellendorf)
- Utopian Studies (Ashley S. Moser)
The book has been the object of an author meets critics-workshop at the University of Edinburgh in November 2022. Another book launch took place in December 2022 at the University of Durham. A third panel is envisaged for 2024 at the University of Exeter. The book has also discussed in an International Political Theory Master class at the University of St. Andrews, in November 2023. No Other Planet was shortlisted for the PSA’s WJM Mackenzie Prize 2023.
2018 Naming Violence: A Critical Theory of Genocide, Torture, and Terrorism. New Directions in Critical Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.
Reviewed in:
- Contemporary Political Theory (Christopher Finlay)
- Perspectives on Politics (Jessica Whyte)
- Genocide Studies International (Maureen S. Hiebert)
- Humanity (Christof Royer)
- Political Theory (Charlotte Epstein)
- H-War (Eric Ross)
The book has also been the object of an author meets critics-workshop at the University of Copenhagen in May 2019. A second book panel took place at Oxford University, in January 2020.
2008 Moralische Politik oder politische Moral? Eine Analyse aktueller Debatten zur internationalen Gerechtigkeit. Frankfurt/Main: Campus, 2008. [Moral Politics or Political Morality? Analyzing Contemporary Debates on Global Justice].
Reviewed in:
- ZPol: Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft
- Die Furche
- Die Presse (Spectrum)
- Das Argument
Edited Books
2020 Political Violence and the Imagination: Complicity, Memory and Resistance. Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2020. (edited with Mihaela Mihai).
2014 On the Uses and Abuses of Political Apologies. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. (edited with Mihaela Mihai).
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025 “Repetition in Action: Søren Kierkegaard and the Problem of Human Agency in the Anthropocene.” Political Theory, ahead of print, December 12, 2025.
2025 “Acting Otherwise in the Face of Ecological Collapse: Günther Anders and the Politics of Infinite Delay.” The Journal of Politics, ahead of print, October 23, 2025.
2025 “Social Dreaming and World Building in the Anthropocene”. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory 26, no. 3 (2025): 465–90. (co-authored with Andrew Schaap, Ruth Kinna, Gerard Delanty and Marit Hammond.)
2024 “Environmental Commemoration: Guiding Principles and Real-World Cases.” Memory Studies 17, no. 6 (2024): 1378–95. (co-authored with Mihaela Mihai.)
2024 “Eco-Miserabilism and Radical Hope: On the Utopian Vision of Post-Apocalyptic Environmentalism.” American Political Science Review 118, no. 1 (2024): 318–31.
2023 “Utopia, Breakdown, Repair: Failure and Success in Social Dreaming.” New Political Science 45, no. 3 (2023): 431–47.
2022 “Warning through Extrapolation: On the Practical Aims of Dystopia.” Utopian Studies 33, no. 1 (2022): 90–106.
2022 “What If: Multispecies Justice as the Expression of Utopian Desire.” Environmental Politics 31, no. 2 (2022): 258–76.
2021 “Multispecies Justice: Climate-Just Futures with, for and beyond Humans.” WIREs Climate Change 12, no. 2 (2021): e699. (co-authored with Petra Tschakert, David Schlosberg, Danielle Celermajer, Lauren Rickards, Christine Winter, Makere Stewart‐Harawira, and Blanche Verlie)
2021 “Multispecies Justice: Theories, Challenges, and a Research Agenda for Environmental Politics.” Environmental Politics 30, no. 1–2 (2021): 119–40. (co-authored with Danielle Celermajer, David Schlosberg, Lauren Rickards, Makere Stewart-Harawira, Petra Tschakert, Blanche Verlie, and Christine Winter)
2019 “Peace as a Minor, Grounded Utopia: On Prefigurative and Testimonial Pacifism.” Perspectives on Politics 17, no. 4 (2019): 1003–18.”
2019 “Bleak Dreams, Not Nightmares: Critical Dystopias and the Necessity of Melancholic Hope.” Constellations 26, no. 4 (2019): 607–22.
2019 “Political Violence and the Imagination: An Introduction.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 22, no. 5 (2019): 497–503. (co-authored with Mihaela Mihai)
2018 “Unhinged Frames: Assessing Thought Experiments in Normative Political Theory.” British Journal of Political Science 48, no. 4 (2018): 1119–41.
2018 “Hope Abjuring Hope: On the Place of Utopia in Realist Political Theory.“ Political Theory 46, no. 5 (2018): 671–97.
2018 “Reconciliation through Estrangement.” The Review of Politics 80, no. 4 (2018): 649–73.
2016 “A Pragmatist Defence of the Ban on Torture: From Moral Absolutes to Constitutive Rules of Reasoning.” Political Studies 64, no. 3 (2016): 765–81.
2014 “On Time in Just War Theory: From Chronos to Kairos.” Polity 46, no. 4 (2014): 520–546.
2014 “Political Imagination and the Crime of Crimes: Coming to Terms with ‘Genocide’ and ‘Genocide Blindness’.” Contemporary Political Theory 13, no. 4 (2014), 358-379.
2014 “Neo-Grotian Predicaments: On Larry May’s Theory of International Criminal Law.” Journal of International Political Theory 10, no. 3 (2014): 345–60.
2012 “Just Pretending: Political Apologies for Historical Injustice and Vice’s Tribute to Virtue.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15, no. 3 (2012): 259–278.
2011 “Political Judgment Beyond Paralysis and Heroism: Deliberation, Decision and the Crisis in Darfur.” European Journal of Political Theory 10, no. 2 (2011): 225–253. (winner of the Gulbenkian Award 2012).
2010 “How (not What) Shall We Think about Human Rights and Religious Arguments: Public Reasoning and Beyond.” e-cadernos CES, no. 9 (2010): 115–133.
2010 “The Illusion of Purity: Chantal Mouffe’s Realist Critique of Cosmopolitanism.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 36, no. 7 (2010): 785–800.
2009 “From Public Reason to Reasonable Accommodation: Negotiating the Place of Religion in the Public Sphere.” Diacrítica: Revista do Centro de Estudos Humanísticos da Universidade de Minho 23, no. 2 (2009): 249–270.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
- 2016 “Norms, Stories and Ideologies: What We Talk About When We Talk About Political Secularism.” In Multireligious Society: Dealing with Religious Diversity in Theory and Practice, edited by Francisco Colom González and Gianni D’Amato, 29–41. New York: Routledge, 2016. Pre-Print/Pre-Proofread
- 2014 “Introduction.” In On the Uses and Abuses of Political Apologies, edited by Mihaela Mihai and Mathias Thaler, 1–9. Rhetoric, Politics and Society 1. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. (with Mihaela Mihai). Pre-Print/Pre-Proofread.
- 2012 “Deep Contextualism and Radical Criticism: The Argument for a Division of Labor in Contemporary Political Theory.” In Facts, Values and Objectivity in Economics, edited by José Maria Castro Caldas and Vítor Neves, 138–157. New York: Routledge, 2012.
- 2012 “Filosofia Política.” In Filosofia: Uma Introdução por Disciplinas, edited by Pedro Galvão, 175–213. Extra Coleção 155. Lisbon: Edições 70, 2012. (with João Cardoso Rosas and Iñigo González)
Journal Articles and Book Chapters without Peer Review
- 2017 Mihai, Mihaela, Lois McNay, Oliver Marchart, Aletta Norval, Vassilios Paipais, Sergei Prozorov, and Mathias Thaler. “Democracy, Critique and the Ontological Turn.” Contemporary Political Theory 16, no. 4 (2017): 501–31.
- 2017 “A Dialectical View of Prague.” Philosophy & Social Criticism 43, no. 3 (2017): 343–44.
- 2012 “Zwei Begründungsmuster für interkulturelles Philosophieren.” In Perspektiven interkulturellen Philosophierens: Beiträge zur Geschichte und Methodik von Polylogen, edited by Franz Gmainer-Pranzl and Anke Graness, 38–44. Vienna: Facultas, 2012.
- 2011 “Comment on Wilfried Hinsch: Ideal Justice and Rational Dissent: A Critique of Amartya Sen’s Idea of Justice.” Analyse & Kritik 33, no. 2 (2011): 387–393.
- 2011 “Was zeichnet ein politisches Fehlurteil aus? Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Wahrheit und Politik.” In Urteil und Fehlurteil, edited by Sandra Lehmann and Sophie Loidolt, 269–282. Wien: Turia + Kant, 2011.
- 2005 “Accounting for Humanitarian Intervention.” IWM Junior Visiting Fellows’ Conferences, no. 18 (2005).
- 2004 “Human Rights, Cultural Relativism and Interculturality.” Historische Sozialkunde. Geschichte – Fachdidaktik – Politische Bildung (Sondernummer: Human Rights) 1 (2004): 5–12.
- 2004 “Menschenrechte, Kulturrelativismus und Interkulturalität.” Menschenrechte im Kulturvergleich (IWK-Mitteilungen) 59, no. 1–2 (2004): 3–11.
Special Journal Issues
- 2019 “Political Violence and the Imagination.” Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 22, no. 5 (2019). Contributions from Maria-Alina Asavei, Alexandre Christoyannopoulos, Eliza Garnsey, Bronwyn Leebaw, Mihaela Mihai, Jade Schiff and Shari Stone-Mediatore.
- 2011 “Secularismos hoje.” e-cadernos CES, no. 13 (2011). (edited with Teresa Toldy).
- 2007 “Gerechter Krieg?” polylog: Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren, no. 16 (2007). (edited with Hans Schelkshorn).
- 2006 “Menschenrechte zwischen Wirtschaft, Recht und Ethik.” polylog: Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren, no. 14 (2006). (edited with Franz M. Wimmer).
Book Reviews
- 2024 Review of Mobilizing Hope: Climate Change and Global Poverty (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), by Darrel Moellendorf. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 72, no. 4 (2024): 622–32.
- 2023 Review of Eco-Emancipation: An Earthly Politics of Freedom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023), by Sharon Krause. Perspectives on Politics 21, no. 4 (2023): 1454–55,
- 2022 Review of Utopia in the Age of Survival: Between Myth and Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2021), by S. D. Chrostowska. The Review of Politics, September 13, 2022 (online first), 1–3.
- 2020 Review of Between Specters of War and Visions of Peace: Dialogic Political Theory and the Challenges of Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), by Gerald M. Mara. Perspectives on Politics 18, no. 1 (2020): 253–55. PDF.
- 2020 Review of Staged: Show Trials, Political Theater, and the Aesthetics of Judgment (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), by Minou Arjomand. Contemporary Political Theory 19, no. 2 (2020): 134–37. PDF.
- 2016 Review of The Democratic Horizon: Hyperpluralism and the Renewal of Political Liberalism (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), by Alessandro Ferrara. Political Theory 44, no. 3 (2016): 431–37. PDF.
- 2010 Review of The Politics of Official Apologies (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), by Melissa Nobles. Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, no. 88 (2010): 241–43. PDF.
- 2010 Review of Religious America, Secular Europe?: A Theme and Variation, 2008 by Peter L. Berger, Grace Davie and Effie Fokas, Religion & Society: Advances in Research 1, no. 1 (2010): 191–193.
- 2010 Review of Secularism, Religion and Multicultural Citizenship, 2009 by Geoffrey Brahm Levey and Tariq Modood (eds.), Religion & Society: Advances in Research 1, no. 1 (2010): 191–193.
Dictionary Entry
- 2012 “Crise.” Dicionário das Crises e das Alternativas. Coimbra: Almedina, 2012.
Working Paper
- 2013 “Norms, Stories, and Ideologies: What We Talk About When We Talk About Political Secularism”. RECODE Working Paper Series. RECODE – Responding to Complex Diversity in Europe and Canada, 2013. PDF.
Newspaper and Magazine Articles
- 2025 “Das Gute am Klimapessimismus.” Der Standard, August 9, 2025. https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000282701/das-gute-am-klimapessimismus.
- 2022 “Visionen für einen kaputten Planeten.” Das Tagebuch, May 3, 2022. https://tagebuch.at/2022/05/visionen-fuer-einen-kaputten-planeten/.
- 2022 “Der Sinn von sozialem Träumen.” Falter Heureka, April 27, 2022. https://www.falter.at/heureka/20220427/der-sinn-von-sozialem-traeumen/_66f59f5b53.
- 2022 “Rescuing Utopianism in a Climate-Changed World.” Los Angeles Review of Books, April 24, 2022. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/rescuing-utopianism-in-a-climate-changed-world/.
- 2022 “Wessen Zukunft? Welcher Planet?” Die Presse, March 25, 2022, https://www.diepresse.com/6116987/wessen-zukunft-welcher-planet.
- 2010 “Ein eigener Säkularismus.” Die Gazette, 2010 (Fall): 40–44. PDF.
- 2009 “Die Krise als Chance?.” Die Furche, April 9, 2009: 13.
Theses (in German)
- 2006 Doctoral thesis (2006): Gründen, Fundieren, Rechtfertigen: Eine Untersuchung moralischer Argumente im Feld des Politischen.
- 2003 MA thesis (2003): Antworten auf den Kulturrelativismus: Eine philosophische Untersuchung aktueller Debatten zur Universalität der Menschenrechte. PDF published on: Sammelpunkt. Elektronisch archivierte Theorie.
Translations (from English to German)
- 2007 Walzer, Michael. “Die Debatte um humanitäre Interventionen.” polylog: Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren, no. 16 (2007): 11–26.
- 2005 Barša, Pavel. “Krieg führen im Namen der Menschenrechte? Vierzehn Thesen über humanitäre Interventionen.” polylog: Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren, no. 14 (2005): 7–25.
- 2000 Mouffe, Chantal. “Wittgenstein, Politische Theorie und Demokratie.” polylog: Zeitschrift für interkulturelles Philosophieren, no. 6 (2000): 53–61.
Other Publications
- 2021 “The Power of Utopia.” IAI News, November 5, 2021. https://iai.tv/articles/the-power-of-utopia-auid-1968.
- 2021 “‘We Are Going to Have to Imagine Our Way out of This!’: Utopian Thinking and Acting in the Climate Emergency.” Ideology Theory Practice (blog), September 13, 2021. ideology-theory-practice.org/1/post/2021/09/we-are-going-to-have-to-imagine-our-way-out-of-this-utopian-thinking-and-acting-in-the-climate-emergency.html.
- 2019 “Radicalizing the Critique of Just War Thinking.” Humanity (blog), August 21, 2019. http://humanityjournal.org/blog/radicalizing-the-critique-of-just-war-thinking/.
- 2018 “Picket Line Rules Miss the Point.” OpenDemocracy (blog), March 17, 2018. https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/mathias-thaler/picket-line-rules-miss-point.
- 2018 “Dead Bodies (Do Not) Matter.” Humanity Journal (blog), November 9, 2018. http://humanityjournal.org/blog/dead-bodies-do-not-matter/. (with Tobias Kelly and Nicola Perugini)
Mathias Thaler 
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