Paul Franks
Areas of Interest:
Kant, German Idealism, Post-Kantian Analytic Philosophy, Neo-Kantianism and Phenomenology, Jewish Philosophy, Early Modern Philosophy, Metaphysics and Epistemology, Philosophy of the Human Sciences
Education:
Ph.D. 1993, Harvard
Areas of Interest
Recent Courses Taught:
- Post-Kantian Themes in Analytic Philosophy (S12)
- Directed Studies (S12)
- Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (F11)
- Jewish Philosophy (F11)
Books:
- All or Nothing: Systematicity, Transcendental Arguments, and Skepticism in German Idealism, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (2005)
- Franz Rosenzweig: Philosophical and Theological Writings (with Michael L. Morgan), Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing (2000)
Selected Articles:
- “Divided by Common Sense: Mendelssohn and Jacobi on Reason and Inferential Justification”, in Moses Mendelssohn’s Metaphysics and Aesthetics, ed. Reinier Munk, Dordrecht: Springer (2011), 203-215
- “Inner Anti-Semitism or Kabbalistic Legacy? German Idealism’s Relationship to Judaism”, in Yearbook of German Idealism, Volume VII, Faith and Reason, eds. Fred Rush, Jürgen Stolzenberg and Paul Franks, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (2010), 254-279
- “Skepticism, Naturalism, and Nihilism in Hegel’s Early Jena Writings”, in Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth Century Philosophy, ed. Frederick Beiser, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2008), 52-73
- “Serpentine Naturalism and Protean Nihilism: Transcendental Philosophy in Anthropological Neo-Kantianism, German Idealism, and Neo-Kantianism”, in Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy, eds. Brian Leiter and Michael Rosen, Oxford University Press (2007), 243-286
- “From Quine to Hegel: Naturalism, Anti-Realism, and Maimon’s Question Quid Facti”, in German Idealism: Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Espen Hammer, Routledge (2007), 50-69
- “Jewish Philosophy after Kant: The Legacy of Salomon Maimon”, in Cambridge Companion to Modern Jewish Philosophy, ed. Michael L. Morgan and Peter Eli Gordon, Cambridge University Press (2007), 53-79
- “Everyday Speech and Revelatory Speech in Rosenzweig and Wittgenstein”, Philosophy Today (Spring 2006), 24-39
- “Talking of Eyebrows: Religious Belief and the Space of Reasons in Wittgenstein, Rosenzweig, and Diamond”, in Claremont Papers on the Philosophy of Religion: Wittgenstein, ed. D. Z. Phillips, London: Ashgate (2005), 139-159
- “Does Post-Kantian Skepticism Exist?”, in The International Yearbook of German Idealism: Conceptions of Rationality, Volume 1, eds., Karl Ameriks and Jürgen Stolzenberg, with Paul Franks and Dieter Schönecker, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (2003), 141-163
- “What should Kantians learn from Maimon’s skepticism?”, in The Philosophy of Salomon Maimon and its Place in the Enlightenment, ed., Gideon Freudenthal, Dordrecht: Kluwer Press (2003), 200-232
- “From Kant to Post-Kantian Idealism”, in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 76: 1 (2002), 229-246
- “Transcendental Arguments, Reason, and Skepticism: Contemporary Debates and the Origins of Post-Kantian Idealism”, in Transcendental Arguments: Problems and Prospects, ed. Robert Stern, Mind Association Occasional Series, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2000), 111-146
- “Freedom, Tatsache, and Tathandlung in the Development of Fichte’s Jena Wissenschaftslehre”, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 79: 3, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (1997), 331-344
- “The Discovery of the Other: Cavell, Fichte, and Skepticism”, Common Knowledge, 5: 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1996), 72-105; reprinted in Reading Cavell, eds. Alice Carey and Sanford Shieh, London: Routledge (2006), 164-201
Ongoing Edited Volumes:
- International Yearbook of German Idealism (associate editor)