Ehrensperger, Florian
Senior Fellow: June–July 2019
Research Project: Salomon Maimon and the Possibility of a Contemplative Life After the End of Metaphysics
Florian Ehrensperger’s research examines Salomon Maimon’s attempt at vindicating a contemplative life after Kant’s destruction of metaphysical knowledge. Kant’s critical philosophy poses a serious threat to those philosophers and contemplators who follow the bios theoretikos propagated by Aristotle. For Maimonides, the ultimate end of human beings and the fourth kind of perfection is to acquire true knowledge 'concerning the divine things.' To gain 'knowledge of Him' is thus the true human perfection and an end in itself. Maimon, who made no secret of his admiration for Maimonides (in his Autobiography, he recounts that he regarded Maimonides 'as the ideal of a perfect human being and his doctrines as having been dictated by divine wisdom itself'), not only led a life of speculation, but also defended this way of life—the goal of philosophers for centuries—throughout his philosophical career. At the same time, Maimon also made no secret of his admiration for Kant, and he agreed with the basic tenets of his critical philosophy. The question therefore is: how could Maimon achieve a synthesis of the Maimonidean contemplative life with Kant’s critical philosophy?
Florian Ehrensperger obtained his doctorate in philosophy from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He is currently an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.