Josef Stern is William H. Colvin Professor of Philosophy Emeritus. Since his retirement 2016, he continues to work (in fact harder than he did before retiring) on contemporary philosophy of language and medieval philosophy, especially Jewish and Arabic philosophy, challenging the fine distinction between being and not being retired, aka “the law of the excluded end.” His most recent books are The Matter and Form of Maimonides’ Guide (Harvard, 2013), which was awarded the 2014 Book Prize for the best book on the history of philosophy published in 2013 by the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and Quotations as Pictures (MIT, 2022). As part of a long-range project that interprets the twelfth-century Jewish philosopher and rabbi Moses Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed as a work in the skeptical tradition, he is presently completing a book manuscript on the epistemology of prophecy as the best case of human knowledge. Since retiring, he has been a Senior Fellow at the Maimonides Center for Advanced Studies—Jewish Skepticism at the University of Hamburg (2016-17); Marie Curie EURIAS Senior Fellow, Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, 2018-19; Mandel Visiting Professor, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2019; Visiting Professor, The Cardinal Bea Center, The Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, 2020; and Greenberg Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies, the University of Chicago (2022).
Selected Publications
Books:
1. Quotations as Pictures (Cambridge, MA, M.I.T. Press, 2022
2. The Matter and Form of Maimonides’ Guide (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2013)
3. Ha-homer ve-ha-tzurah Be-Moreh Nevukhim Le-RaMBaM, (Sifriyat Heillel ben Hayyim, Kibbutz Ha-Me’uhad Publishers, Israel, 2017; Hebrew Translation of “Matter and Form”).
4 Metaphor in Context (Cambridge, MA, M.I.T. Press/Bradford Books, 2000) (Paperback edition 2016).
5. Problems and Parables of Law: Maimonides and Nahmanides on Reasons for the Commandments (Ta’amei Ha-Mitzvot) (Albany, New York, SUNY Press, 1998)
Edited Volumes:
1. Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed in Translation: A History from the Thirteenth Century to the Twentieth, co-ed. with James T. Robinson and Yonatan A. Shemesh, University of Chicago Press, 2019.
2. Themes in the Thought of Eliezer Berkovits. Special Issue of Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies v. 31, n. 4 (Summer 2013).
3. Adaptations and Innovations: Studies on the Interaction between Jewish and Islamic Thought and Literature from the Early Middle Ages to the Late Twentieth Century, Dedicated to Professor Joel L. Kraemer. Co-ed. with Y. T. Langermann, (Paris-Louven: Peeters, 2007)
Recent Papers:
1. “Where is Maimonides’ Logic?” Studia Graeco-Arabica (11/2) 2021, Special issue: “Logica Graeco-Arabico-Hebraica,” 81-92.
2 “Two Moments in the Biography of Qedushah (aka Holiness),” Harvard Theological Review 1:115 (July 2022): 387-415.
3. “A Guide to the AfterDeath: Maimonides on olam haba’,” Religious Studies 60, (May 2024): 574-590.
4. “Maimonides’ Dream Argument and the Certainty of Prophecy,” in Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate World and Beyond:
Essays in Honor of Sarah Stroumsa, eds. Omer Michaelis and Sabine Schmidtke, 2 vols, Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024, 461-500.
5. “The Unbinding of Isaac: Maimonides on the Aqedah and Dying for God,” in Eleonore Stump and Judith Wolfe, eds. Knowledge Through Narrative: Biblical Narratives and Human Flourishing. London: Routledge, 43-61.
6. “Maimonides on Worship, True and False,” forthcoming in Aaron Segal and Sam Lebens, eds., New Essays in the Philosophy of Worship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.