PhD Defence: Mads Kogut

In order to obtain the PhD degree, Mads Kogut has submitted his thesis entitled:

The formation of the interests: A normative conception of motivation and its implications for the ends of learning

This PhD dissertation critically examines conceptions of human motivation in theories of learning from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The critical investigation concentrates on the influential works of John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, and Albert Bandura and the way that their flawed conceptions of motivation are the source of instrumentalist understandings of ends in education. The constructive aim of the dissertation is to develop an alternative, Kantian-inspired conception of motivation, which allows for a non-instrumentalist understanding of the role of ends in education. Human motivation, the dissertation argues, takes the form of an interest in knowing the good which is expressed in our taking something to be worth caring about.

The thesis will be available from research.cbs.dk

Primary Supervisor:

Associate Professor Rasmus Johnsen
Department of Business Humanities and Law
Copenhagen Business School 

Secondary Supervisors: 

Professor MSO Annemette Kjærgaard
Department of Management, Society and Communication
Copenhagen Business School 

Associate Professor Marius Gudmand-Høyer
Department of Business Humanities and Law
Copenhagen Business School 

Assessment Committee:

Associate Professor Michael Pedersen (Chair)
Department of Business Humanities and Law
Copenhagen Business School 

Professor Rebecca Comay
Department of Philosophy
University of Toronto 

Professor Jakob Egholm Feldt
Department of Communication and Arts
Roskilde Universitet 

Date: 22 september 2025
Time: 15:00-17:00
Online: TEAMS

*Please note that the microphone and camera of all spectators must be turned off.

Location: Porcelænshaven
Room: PHRs20 (Entrance 22)
Reception: Lobby putside PHRs20

*The CBS PhD School will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence.