Why Study Hermann Cohen?

Reinier Munk will raise this question on Nov 29, 2010, at a conference in Boston.

Prof. Munk teaches History of Modern Philosophy and Modern Jewish Philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He is an internationally renowned specialist in eighteenth century Jewish thought, particularly in the roles played by such figures as Moses Mendelssohn and Solomon Maimon in the German Enlightenment, and in the work of the leading figure of Marburg Neo-Kantianism, Hermann Cohen. His publications include numerous articles and the monograph, The Rationale of Halakhic Man. Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Conception of Jewish Thought. Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Thought (Amsterdam, 1996).

Prof. Munk will be preceded by Frederick Beiser who will speak on Herman Cohen's discovery of the transcendental.

Dr. Beiser, Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University, is the author of numerous acclaimed books on the history of German thought in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, e.g., The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte (Harvard, 1993) and The Romantic Imperative (Harvard, 2003); Schiller as Philosopher (Oxford, 2005); and Diotima's Children: German Aesthetic Rationalism from Leibniz to Lessing (Oxford, 2010).

The conference is organized by Daniel Dahlstrom, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Michael Zank, Professor of Religion, and the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies (Steven T. Katz, Director).

For more information call 617.353.4434.