Steven Nadler
Steven Mitchell Nadler[1] (born November 11, 1958) is an American/Canadian academic and philosopher specializing in 17th-century philosophy. He is Vilas Research Professor and the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy, and was (from 2004–2009) Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is also director of their Institute for Research in the Humanities.[2]
Steven Nadler
November 11, 1958
American
- Academic
- philosopher
2
Nadler has written extensively on Spinoza, Descartes and Cartesianism, and Leibniz, and engaged with medieval and early modern Jewish philosophy.[2]
Education and career[edit]
Nadler received his B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1980 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1981 and 1986.[3] He has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 1988 and has been a visiting professor of philosophy at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales and École normale supérieure in Paris, and the University of Amsterdam.[4]
In November 2006, he presented at the Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival symposium.[5] In 2007, he held the Spinoza Chair at the University of Amsterdam.[6]
From 2010 to 2015 he was the editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.[7]
In April 2015, he was a Scholar in Residence at the American Academy in Rome.[8] In the same year, he was invited to sit on an advisory board at a symposium held by the Amsterdam Talmud Torah congregation to discuss the lifting of the cherem on 17th-century Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, which had been imposed in 1656 on account of his views on the God of the Torah, which were condemned as heretical.[9]
Recognition[edit]
In 2020 Nadler was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10]
Philosophical work[edit]
Nadler's research focus has been devoted to the study of philosophy in the seventeenth century, including Descartes and Cartesian philosophy, Spinoza, and Leibniz. His research also includes antecedents of aspects of early modern thought in medieval Latin philosophy and (especially with respect to Spinoza) medieval Jewish philosophy.[2]