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Hermann Cohen’s “Ethics of Maimonides”
Monday June 9, 2025 - Wednesday June 11, 2025
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Please join us for a three-day conference on Hermann Cohen’s Ethics of Maimonides. Below please find the draft schedule.
Program
Monday, June 9, 2025
9:30-9:45am – Greetings
9:45-10:45am – Frederick Beiser (Syracuse University)
“Cohen and Maimonides and the Rationalist Tradition in Theology”
Chair: Robert Gibbs (University of Toronto)
10:45-11:00am – Break
11:00-12:00am – Shira Billet (Jewish Theological Seminary)
“Maimonides on Eudaimonia and the Virtue of Humility in Hermann Cohen’s Ethics, Politics, and Philosophy of Judaism”
Chair: Sol Goldberg (University of Toronto)
12:00-1:30pm – Lunch (kosher with vegetarian options)
1:30-2:30pm – Martin Pinckney (University of Toronto)
“In Beauty’s Absence: On the Role of Privation in Cohen’s Aesthetics”
Chair: Sarah Tropper (University of Toronto)
2:30-2:45pm – Break
2:45-3:45pm – Michael Rosenthal (University of Toronto)
“The Trouble with Transcendence: Three Problems for Cohen’s Arguments in the Ethics of Maimonides”
Chair: Ori Werdiger (Van Leer Jerusalem Institute)
3:45-4:00pm – Break
4:00-5:00pm – Michael Zank (Boston University)
“’Right for the Wrong Reasons?’ Revisiting Cohen and Strauss on Maimonides’ Platonism”
Chair: Alexandra Zirkle (SUNY Buffalo)
6:30pm – Conference Dinner (kosher with vegetarian options)
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
10:15-11:15 – David Lemler (University of Paris – Sorbonne)
“Hermann Cohen’s Selective Reading of Maimonides: Changing A Dogmatical Monotheism into an Ethical Monotheism”
Chair: Elias Sacks (University of Colorado Boulder)
11:15-11:30am – Break
11:30am -12:30pm – George Y. Kohler (Bar-Ilan University) – on Zoom
“Maimonides’ Theory of Divine Attributes as an Example of Infinite Judgements in Hermann Cohen”
Chair: Shira Billet (Jewish Theological Seminary)
12:30-2:00pm – Lunch
2:00-3:00pm – Anne-Marie Fowler (University of Toronto)
“The Ethical as Necessarily Temporal: A Reading of Cohen’s Discussion of Maimonides’ Distinction between the Negative and the Privative”
Chair: Ynon Wygoda (University of Toronto)
3:00-3:15pm – Break
3:15-4:15pm – Ynon Wygoda (University of Toronto)
“Maimonides and Cohen on Job as the Figure of Perplexion and Knowledge”
Chair: Michael Rosenthal (University of Toronto)
No group dinner on this day
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
9:00-10:40am
Cohen and Commentary
- Ori Werdiger (Polonsky Academy, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute)
“Jacob Gordin and the Limits of Cohen’s Maimonides”
- Alexandra Zirkle (SUNY Buffalo)
“Hermann Cohen between Graetz and Susman: Exegetical Interplays”
- Shira Billet (Jewish Theological Seminary)
“Hermeneutics and the Holy Spirit: Hermann Cohen on Psalm 51 and Isaiah 63”
Chair & Respondent: Elias Sacks (University of Colorado Boulder)
11:00am-12:30pm
Commentary in Modern Jewish Thought
A roundtable discussion
- Shira Billet
- Elias Sacks
- Ori Werdiger
- Ynon Wygoda
- Alexandra Zirkle
12:30pm – Lunch
Organized by Michael Rosenthal (Toronto), Ori Werdiger (Van Leer Jerusalem Institute) & Ynon Wygoda (Toronto)
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