Assistant Professor

Bar-Ilan University

I’m an assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. My area of specialty is Kant and early modern philosophy, though I have further interests and teaching experience in ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. I earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Indiana University in September 2017. I wrote my dissertation entitled “Kant’s Theoretical Conception of God” under the direction of Allen Wood.

Areas of Speciality

  • Kant
  • Early Modern Philosophy

Areas of Competence

  • Ethics
  • Political Philosophy
  • Metaphysics
  • Aesthetics
  • Philosophy of Religion

Education

  • PhD in Philosophy, 2017

    Indiana University Bloomington

  • M.A in Philosophy, 2006

    Tel-Aviv University

Academic Employment

 
 
 
 
 

Assistant Professor

Bar-Ilan University

Oct 2020 – Present Israel
 
 
 
 
 

Lecturer

Levinsky College of Education

Oct 2019 – Sep 2020 Israel
Lecturer in Philosophy of Education
 
 
 
 
 

Kreitman Postdoctoral Fellow

Ben-Gurion University

Oct 2019 – Sep 2020 Israel
 
 
 
 
 

Postdoc

Bar-Ilan University

Oct 2017 – Sep 2019 Israel
Part of Ohad Nachtomy’s project on the life sciences in early modern philosophy

Research

Research Grants

  • “Kant’s Regulative Metaphysics” (ISF 2907/21)
    Short description

Publications

  • “Kant’s Teleology as the True Apology to Leibniz’s Pre-Established Harmony”, in Edgar Valdez (ed.). Rethinking Kant Volume 7. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, forthcoming

    Abstract

  • “Kant’s Regulative Essentialism and the Unknowability of Real Essences” European Journal of Philosophy forthcoming

    Abstract

  • “Moses Mendelssohn’s Original Modal Proof for the Existence of God” Journal of the History of Philosophy 61:2 (2023)

    Abstract

  • “The Dialectical Illusion in Kant’s Only Possible Argument for the Existence of God” Kantian Review 25:3 (2020)

    Abstract

  • “Kant’s Regulative Metaphysics of God and the Systematic Lawfulness of Nature” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 57:2 (2019)

    Abstract

  • “The Relation between God and the World in the Pre-Critical Kant: was Kant a Spinozist?” Kantian Review 21:2 (2016)

    Abstract

  • “Kant’s Religion and the Reflective Judgment” In Margit Ruffing, Claudio La Rocca, Alfredo Ferrarin & Stefano Bacin (eds.), Kant Und Die Philosophie in Weltbürgerlicher Absicht: Akten des Xi. Kant-Kongresses 2010. De Gruyter. (2013)

Book Reviews

Work in progress

  • “Reconciling Best-System and Necessitation accounts of Kant on particular laws of nature”
  • “A Norm-Expressivist Account of Kant’s Regulative Ideas”
  • “Collective Hope and Political Activism”

Dissertation

Title: Kant’s Theoretical Conception of God

Abstract

The full dissertation is available here.

Research plans

History of Philosophy
Practical Philosophy
Digital Humanities

Selected presentations

  • “The Only Possible Proof”, The Young Kant Conference, Northwestern University, May 23-25 2024
  • “Explanatory Harmony” (Panel on Leibniz’s pre-established with Uri Eran, Reed Winegar and Ohad Nachtomy)
    • Israeli Philosophical Association Conference, Hebrew U Jerusalem, 30 Jun 2022
    • Leibniz Congress 31.7-5.8 2023, Hanover Germany
  • “The Unity of Kant’s Attitude Toward Leibniz’s Pre-Established Harmony”
    • Workshop on Teleology, Mechanism, and the Mind-Body Problem between Leibniz and Kant, Technion, 23-25 May 2022
  • “Collective Hope and Political Activism”
    • Israeli Philosophical Association Conference, Open-U Raanana, 8 Jul 2021
  • “Kant’s Regulative Essentialism and the Unknowability of Real Essences”
    • 5th Biennial Meeting of the North American Kant Society, Binghamton University, 5-8 June 2020 (online)
  • “Mendelssohn’s Unique Proof for the Existence of God”
    • Israeli Philosophical Association Conference, Bar-Ilan, 13 Feb 2019
    • 2021 APA Pacific Division Meeting, online 5-10 Apr 2021
    • Berlin-Hamburg Workshop in Early-Modern Philosophy, 12-13 May 2022
  • “The Critique of the Power of Judgment as the ‘True Apology’ to Leibniz”
    • North American Kant Society Eastern Study Group, Columbia University NYC, May 4-5 2018
    • Leuven Kant Conference, KU Leuven, May 31-Jun 1 2018
    • Jerusalem, ‘Teleological Explanations between Leibniz and Kant’, June 25-27 2018
    • 2019 APA Eastern Division Meeting, New York, 7-10 January 2019
  • “Kant’s Regulative Metaphysics of God"
    • 3rd Biennial Meeting of the North American Kant Society, Emory University, 27-29 May 2016
    • 2017 APA Central Division Meeting, Kansas City MO, 1-4 March 2017
    • Israeli Philosophical Association Conference, Haifa 20 Feb 2018
    • Bar-Ilan Philosophy Department Colloquium, 17 April 2018
  • “Dialectical Illusion in the Only Possible Argument”,
    • North American Kant Society Mid-west Study Group, McGill University Montreal, Oct 21-23 2016
  • “Kant on the Idea of God - a Case for Metaphysical Imagination” (invited paper)
    • Tel Aviv University, ‘Moral Imagination’ Conference, 3-4 June 2015
  • “Systematicity in Kant’s Moral and Theoretical Ideas of God”
    • London, Annual UK Kant Society Conference, 28-30 August 2013
  • “The Systematicity of Nature, Ideas of Reason and Reflective Judgment”
    • 1st Biennial Meeting of the North American Kant Society, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-4 June 2011
  • “Kant’s Religion and the Reflective Judgment”
    • Pisa, 11th International Kant Congress, 22-26 May 2010
  • “The Aesthetics of the Interesting”
    • Seoul, The XXII World Congress of Philosophy, 25 July – 1 August 2008

Teaching

Teaching Experience

Bar-Ilan University

  • History of Modern Philosophy from Descartes to Kant: undergraduate, Every year since 2020
  • Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Advanced undergraduate / graduate seminar
  • Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason: Advanced undergraduate tutorial
  • Conceptions of God in Early Modern Philosophy: Advanced undergraduate / graduate seminar (Syllabus)
  • Kant’s practical philosophy: Ethics, Religion and History: Advanced undergraduate / graduate seminar
  • Kant’s ethics: Advanced undergraduate / graduate seminar
  • Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment: Advanced undergraduate / graduate seminar
  • Metaphysical Disputes in Early Modern Philosophy: Advanced undergraduate / graduate seminar

Levinsky College of Education

Philosophical Perspectives in Education / mandatory undergraduate, Fall 2019, Spring - Summer 2020

Indiana University

​Instructor (full course responsibilities):

  • Introduction to Social/Political Philosophy, Fall 2016 (Syllabus)
  • Introduction to Ethics, Spring 2014 (Syllabus)

Associate Instructor (leading discussion sections and grading):

  • Introduction to Philosophy, Spring 2017 (Frederick Schmitt)
  • Introduction to Existentialism, Fall 2013 (Allen Wood)

Grader:

  • Introduction to Symbolic Logic, Fall 2012 (Leah Savion), Spring 2013 (Mark Kaplan)

Tel-Aviv University

Instructor (full course responsibilities):

  • Bounds of Hope – Kant’s Philosophy of Religion: Fall 2008 (Syllabus)
  • Intermediate Aesthetics (Kant & Schopenhauer): Fall 2006

Teaching Assistant (leading discussion sections, designing assignments and grading):

  • Guided Reading B (Hume’s Treatise): Fall 2010
  • Guided Reading A (Descartes’ Meditations): Fall 2004, Fall 2005
  • Introduction to Logic: Fall 2002, Fall 2003 (Anat Biletzki)

Grader:

  • 19th Century Philosophy: Spring 2008 (Eli Friedlander)

Proposed Courses

Kant’s Regulative Ideas

Research Workshop of the Israel Science Foundation

13-15 June 2023, Bar-Ilan University and Tel-Aviv University

Organizers: Noam Hoffer, Moran Godess-Riccitelli, Eli Friedlander

Conference website