Description:

The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies presents:

Manfred H. Vogel Lecture in Judaic Studies

Spinoza - “The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity”

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Award-winning novelist and philosopher

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is an American philosopher who is also a novelist and public intellectual. She is the author of ten books, many of which cross the divide between fiction and non-fiction. Her latest book is Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away. Other books include 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, Betraying Spinoza:The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity, and The Mind-Body Problem. She is the recipient of numerous awards for both her scholarship and fiction, including a MacArthur fellowship. She was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association in 2011, and, in 2015, was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama in a ceremony at the White House. She is currently a Visiting Professor of Philosophy and English at NYU, as well as a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the New College of the Humanities, London, UK. 

Co-sponsored by: The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, Northwestern Office of the President, Weinberg College, Department of English, Department of Philosophy, Department of Religious Studies and the Writing Program