Week 1
Week 1: 23 January
Paul Franks (Yale)
‘Published and Yet Not Published’: The German Idealist Struggle to Overcome the Obscurity of Philosophy
This year the Ethical Reading seminar is in association with the Early Biblical Interpretation seminar, focusing on the theme of ‘Obscurity’. This series brings biblical scholars, classicists and other fields together like the Ethical Reading seminar. This Hilary Term 2024, the seminar is focused on the theme of obscurity, and we are excited to hear the perspectives offered by our presenters from across multiple disciplines.
Conveners: Constanze Güthenke (Corpus Christi) and Hindy Najman (Oriel)
In Hilary Term 2025, the Ethical Reading Seminar will run on Thursdays 10:00 am – 12:00 pm.
Consult at the Oriel College porter’s lodge for the 4-digit passcode to enter the Harris Seminar Room.
Week 1: 23 January
Paul Franks (Yale)
‘Published and Yet Not Published’: The German Idealist Struggle to Overcome the Obscurity of Philosophy
Week 2: 30 January
Christoph Markschies (Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften/Humboldt-Universität)
Obscurity as driving force in Origen’s Bible Philology and Interpretation
Week 3: 6 February
Avigail Manekin (Hebrew University)
Obscure Words and Pseudo-Scripts in Ancient Jewish Magical Texts
Week 4: 13 February
Lea Niccolai (Cambridge)
Neoplatonic unknowns and the limits of logos
Week 5: 20 February
Frank Griffel (LMH)
Is There More to Causality than Correlation? Discussions About Evident and Obscure Causal Connections in Pre-Modern Islamic Philosophy and Theology
Week 6: 27 February
Giulia Maltagliati (Cambridge)
Trying Obscurity in Forensic Oratory: Between Rhetoric and Philology
Week 7: 6 March
Avishai Bar-Asher (Hebrew University)
Formatting the Book of Formation (Sefer Yeṣirah):
How Textual Restoration Illuminates the Obscurity of the Major Treatise of Jewish Mysticism
Week 8: 13 March
Felix Christen (Zürich)
Obscurity and the Time of Writing: Towards an Ethics of Philology in Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, and Szondi