Prof. Lukas Muehlethaler (Freie Universität Berlin) 

In the nineteenth and twentieth century, Hebrew texts in Jewish philosophy and on its history are written by thinkers who remain outside the “Wissenschaft des Judentums” even though they inspire some of its proponents. Many of these thinkers stand in the Eastern European rabbinical tradition and attempt to relate traditional texts with both Jewish philosophy of the Middle Ages and modern Western philosophy. Their writings were published mostly in separate journals and collective volumes and for various reasons, themselves of great interest, failed to have an impact on the emerging Hebrew academic environment. In a twist of irony, the Hebrew language of their writings meant that they remained unknown to proponents and scholars of what is generally considered Modern Jewish philosophy. The seminar gives a brief overview of this tradition of Hebrew philosophy and looks at how its proponents integrated Jewish medieval philosophy and mysticism into their thinking.
Lukas Muehlethaler is Professor for Jewish philosophy and aesthetics at the Freie Universität Berlin. He studied Jewish intellectual history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and in 2010 received a PhD in Arabic and Islamic studies at Yale University with a dissertation on the Jewish philosopher Ibn Kammūna. Prior to his appointment he was part of the Research Unit Intellectual History of the Islamicate World at the Freie Universität Berlin. He works on Jewish science and philosophy in both Arabic and Hebrew with a focus on the interaction between different intellectual and cultural traditions.