In his publications, Wolfgang Leidhold focuses on the concept and history of experience since the late ’80s. His interest in this subject began with his dissertation. Over the years, the historical approach to ideas, which was initially restricted to individual cases, has developed into the current interdisciplinary project of The History of Experience. It traces the change of experiential structures from the Paleolithic to the present day.

List of Books

Experience and Ethics in Francis Hutcheson (1982, 2004)

Wolfgang Leidhold explores the concept of experience whilst applying his thesis on Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746).

Wolfgang Leidhold began to explore the concept of experience when working his thesis on Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746). The Scottish philosopher wanted to give ethics a foundation in experience, but he was convinced that all previous attempts by empiricists such as John Locke had failed. After all, he considered the classical empiricist formula unsuitable. That formula, popular since the time of Aristotle, stated: From the senses comes memory, and from many memories arises one experience. Locke argued that all sensory perceptions are associated with pleasure and pain, thus our moral ideas derive from this origin. Yet Hutcheson was convinced that moral ideas could not arise from sensory perception, and therefore he advocated a multidimensional concept of experience.
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The Pacific Islands Region (1991)

Wolfgang Leidhold remained true to the subject of experience, focuses in this book on security policy in the Pacific islands and the Pacific Rim region.

After his dissertation, Wolfgang Leidhold remained true to the subject of experience, switching, however, from the history of ideas to international relations, focusing on security policy, and choosing an area with parties living in very different situations: the Pacific islands and the Pacific Rim powers. How did the actors get in touch with political reality? How did they direct their actions? By what means did both sides interact? Studying the experiential side reconfirmed the presumption derived from studying Hutcheson and the history of ideas: Political reality does not simply adhere to the empirical formula, but rather emerges from a variety of experiential dimensions that include our imagination, spiritual experience, imagination, reflection, and interpretation. Result: a multidimensional concept of experience is also indispensable in the field of practical politics.
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Political Philosophy and the Nature of Experience (2002)

Exploring the nature of experience was the main theme of Wolfgang Leidhold's book on Political Philosophy.

Through his works on Hutcheson and the South Pacific, Leidhold came to the conclusion that we have to start with a multidimensional structure of experience if we want to understand the way people get in touch with reality.
However, this type of multidimensional approach to experience did not exist. This issue must be addressed first. Thus, exploring the nature of experience was the main theme of Wolfgang Leidhold’s book on Political Philosophy.
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The Logic of Religious Experience (2008)

In "The Logic of Religious Experience, Wolfgnag Leidhold focuses on spiritual experience. First systematically analyzing it and then looking at it from an intercultural and historical perspective.

In his next book, The Logic of Religious Experience, Leidhold focuses on spiritual experience, first systematically analyzing it and then looking at it from an intercultural and historical perspective. By applying his theory of experience to religion and its spiritual foundations, Leidhold shows how spiritual experience has evolved in the course of history and throughout an array of Eastern and Western cultures. This examination reveals that the way people get in touch with the numinous, i.e. the structure of spiritual experience, has changed several times, and that the elements of its structure were only gradually brought to light.
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“The History of Experience”
A Study in Experiential Turns and Cultural Dynamics from the Paleolithic to the Present Day (2023)

The results of Wolfgang Leidhold's research are presented in his latest book: "The History of Experience" published by Taylor & Francis.

Wolfgang Leidhold’s publications deal with the concept and history of experience since the 1980s. His interest in this topic first started with his dissertation on the Scottish philosopher Francis Hutcheson and his idea of a “moral sense”. In subsequent publications, he developed a theory of experience. Finally, he discovered that the structure of experience has gradually changed. Starting from the Paleolithic to the present day, nine transformations (experiential turns) occurred. The results of this research are presented in his latest book: “The History of Experience” published by Taylor & Francis.