Margus Ott

Margus Ott (born 7 October 1975) is a philosopher, translator and writer.

Ott was born in Tallinn, studied at the University of Bologna, the Estonian Institute of Humanities, Nanjing University in China and Tallinn University where he defended his doctoral thesis Vägi. Individuatsioon, keerustumine ja praktika (‘Potency. Individuation, Complexification and Practice’, 2014). He has worked at the University of Tartu, the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and National Taiwan University. As of 2023, Ott is a lecturer at Tallinn University.

The foundations of Ott’s philosophy have been collected into the six volumes of Väekirjad (‘Letters of Potency’, 2015–2018) where the central concept is potency and which, in addition to essays, also contain pieces of fiction, including poetry, carried by philosophical interpretation of the world. The first and the second volume of the book received the Literature Endowment Annual Award (2015). He has also published the monographs Käsitööfilosoofia, filosoofiakäsitöö (‘Philosophy of Handicraft and the Craft of Philosophy’, 2025), which grew out of teaching and research at the department of heritage technology of Viljandi Culture Academy, and Heaolu (‘Wellbeing’, 2025). Philosophical discussions published in the press, mainly in the culture paper Sirp, were published in the collection of articles Inimmaailmas (‘Within the Realm of Humans’, 2025), in the series Vabamõtlejad (‘Independent Thinkers’).

Margus Ott has translated the works of classical Chinese philosophers, including the inner chapters of Zhuangzi, and the works by Jacques Le Goff, Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza into Estonian and provided them with detailed afterwords. Ott’s own philosophy has been influenced by Taoist texts and Bergson’s and Deleuze’s works.

A. K. (Translated by I. A.)

 

Books in Estonian

Vägi. Väekirjad. I köide. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2015, 470 lk.
Väekirjad. 2. köide. Filosoofilised esseed. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, 2015, 287 lk.
Väekirjad. 3. köide. Pärimuslikud esseed. Tallinn: EKSA, 2016, 417 lk.
Väekirjad. 4. köide. Poliitilised esseed. Toimetajad Maarja Kangro ja Aro Velmet. Tallinn: EKSA, 2017, 404 lk.
Väekirjad. 5. köide. Isendlikud esseed. Tallinn: EKSA, 2017, 396 lk. [Kultuurikriitika.]
Väekirjad. 6. köide. Kirju vägi. Tallinn: EKSA, 2018, 293 lk.
Muusika ja muundus: valik klassikalisi tekste hiina mõttepärimusest. Tallinn: TLÜ kirjastus, 2021, 417 lk.
Heaolu. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli Kirjastus, 2025, 373 lk.
Inimmaailmas. Tartu: Vabamõtleja, 2025, 223 lk.
Käsitööfilosoofia, filosoofiakäsitöö. Viljandi: Tartu Ülikooli Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia, 2025.