Yehuda Halper

Yehuda Halper is Visiting Professor in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago and Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. His research examines the transmission of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy from Greek into Arabic and Hebrew in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He focuses especially on metaphysics, logic (especially dialectic), and the philosophical curriculum as a whole.  He examines well-known medieval and Renaissance thinkers like Al-Farabi, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, Averroes, and Levi Gersonides, alongside lesser-known Jewish philosophers like Samuel Ibn Tibbon, Jacob Anatoli, Moses Ibn Tibbon, Jacob ben Makhir Ibn Tibbon, Immanuel of Rome, Qalonimos ben Qalonimos, Todros Todrosi, Abraham Bibago, Eli Habilio, Johanan Alemanno, and Judah Moscato. 

Prof. Halper is the author of over 50 articles and two monographs on medieval Jewish and Islamic thought, and has given nearly 200 academic lectures around the world. His monograph, Jewish Socratic Questions in an Age without Plato, was awarded the Goldstein-Goren Book Award for the best book in Jewish Thought in 2019-2021. He is currently PI on an Israel Science Foundation grant, 2998.25: "The Last Hebrew Metaphysicians of Aragon." Previously, he was PI in Israel Science Foundation grants 622.22: "Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Explanation of Foreign Terms and the Foundations of Philosophy in Hebrew" and 2181.19, “Hebrew Traditions of Aristotelian Dialectics.” He was also the organizer of the Research Group, “The Reception and Impact of Aristotelian Logic in Medieval Jewish Cultures,” at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies. He is the developer of the Mahadurot modular digital critical edition editor used to publish medieval texts on http://mahadurot.com, for which he was granted the Rector's Award for scientific innovation at Bar Ilan University.