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Peter Eli Gordon (born 1966) is an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
historian of philosophy The history of philosophy is the systematic study of the development of Philosophy, philosophical thought. It focuses on philosophy as rational inquiry based on argumentation, but some theorists also include myth, Religion, religious traditions ...
, and a
critical theorist Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are fu ...
. The Amabel B. James Professor of History and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Philosophy at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, Gordon focuses on
continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...
and modern German and French thought, with particular emphasis on the German philosophers
Theodor Adorno Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor. List of people with the given name Theodor * Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher * Theodor Aman, Romanian painter * Theodor Blue ...
and
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
, critical theory, continental philosophy during the interwar crisis, and most recently,
secularization In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...
and social thought in the 20th century.


Early life

Born in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
, in 1966, Peter Gordon was the son of Sunnie and
Milton Gordon Milton Myron Gordon (October 3, 1918 – June 4, 2019) was an American sociologist. He was most noted for having devised a theory on the Seven Stages of Assimilation. He was born in Gardiner, Maine. Gordon died on June 4, 2019, at the age of 100 ...
, a biochemist who attended
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
and the
University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
, earning his
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
(PhD) degree at 23 and joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 1959, focusing on plant genetics. Peter Gordon received his
Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
degree from
Reed College Reed College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland, Portland, Oregon, E ...
(1988) after a stint at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. He studied with
Martin Jay Martin Evan Jay (born May 4, 1944) is an American intellectual historian whose research interests connected history with Frankfurt School critical theory, social theory, cultural criticism, and historiography. He is currently the Sidney Hellman ...
at
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, from which he received his PhD degree (1997).


Career

Gordon spent two years (1998–2000) at the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
before joining the faculty at Harvard in 2000. In 2006 he became a member of Harvard's permanent faculty, and in 2005 he received the
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
Award for Excellence in Teaching. Gordon's first book, ''Rosenzweig and Heidegger: Between Judaism and German Philosophy'' (
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
, 2003), about
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
and the German-Jewish philosopher
Franz Rosenzweig Franz Rosenzweig (; ; 25 December 1886 – 10 December 1929) was a German theologian, philosopher, and translator. Early life and education Franz Rosenzweig was born in Kassel, Germany, to an affluent, minimally observant Jewish family. His fa ...
, won the Salo W. Baron Prize from the Academy for Jewish Research for Best First Book, the Goldstein-Goren Prize for Best Book in Jewish Philosophy, and the Morris D. Forkosch Prize from the Journal of the History of Ideas for Best Book in Intellectual History. In '' Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer, Davos'' (
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
, 2010), Gordon reconstructs the 1929 debate between Heidegger and
Ernst Cassirer Ernst Alfred Cassirer ( ; ; July 28, 1874 – April 13, 1945) was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy. Trained within the Neo-Kantian Marburg School, he initially followed his mentor Hermann Cohen in attempting to supply an idealistic ...
at
Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...
, Switzerland, demonstrating its significance as a point of rupture in Continental thought that implicated all the major philosophical movements of the day. ''Continental Divide'' was awarded the
Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-born American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, ...
Prize from the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 2010. Gordon's monograph, ''Adorno and Existence'' (Harvard University Press, 2016), reinterprets
Theodor W. Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( ; ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, musicologist, and social theorist. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has com ...
's philosophy by looking at the
critical theorist Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are fu ...
's encounters with
existentialism Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...
and
phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...
. The main claim of the book is that Adorno was inspired by the unfulfilled promise of these schools to combat traditional
metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...
thinking, which led to the development of his "negative dialectics". In the most recent years Gordon has published books such as ''Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Seculariation'' (Yale University Press, 2020) and a major reinterpretation of Adorno's philosophy, ''A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity'' (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2023 and the University of Chicago Press, 2024). ''A Precarious Happiness'' develops arguments that Gordon first presented in Frankfurt in 1919 for the Adorno Lectures, sponsored by the Institute for Social Research and timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Adorno's death. Gordon sits on the editorial boards of ''Constellations'', ''Modern Intellectual History'', ''
Journal of the History of Ideas The ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering intellectual history, conceptual history, and the history of ideas, including the histories of philosophy, literature and the arts, natural and soci ...
'', and ''
New German Critique The ''New German Critique'' is a contemporary academic journal in German studies. It is associated with the Department of German Studies at Cornell University. It "covers 20th century political and social theory, philosophy, literature, film, medi ...
''. He is co-founder and co-chair of the Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History''.'' Gordon teaches two survey courses on continental philosophy: German Social Thought and French Social Thought, and a lecture course on Hegel and Marx.


Bibliography


Books

* ''Rosenzweig and Heidegger, Between Judaism and German Philosophy'' (University of California Press, 2003) * ''The Cambridge Companion to Modern Jewish Philosophy'' (co-editor with Michael Morgan, Cambridge University Press, 2007) * ''Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer, Davos'' (Harvard University Press, 2010) * ''Weimar Thought: A Critical History'' (co-editor with John McCormick, Princeton University Press, 2013) * ''Adorno and Existence'' (Harvard University Press, 2016) * ''Authoritarianism'' (co-authored with Wendy Brown and Max Pensky, University of Chicago Press, 2018) * * ''A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity'' (University of Chicago Press, 2024)


Journal articles


"Continental Divide: Heidegger and Cassirer at Davos, 1929—An Allegory of Intellectual History,"
''Modern Intellectual History.'' Vol. I, N. 2, (August, 2004), pp. 1–30.
“The Concept of the Unpolitical: German Jewish Thought and Weimar Political Theology”
''Social Research''. Special Issue on Hannah Arendt's Centenary Volume 74, Number 3 (Fall 2007)
“Neo-Kantianism and the Politics of Enlightenment”
''Philosophical Forum'' (Spring, 2008)

''Journal of the History of Ideas'' Volume 69, Number 4 (October, 2008), pp. 647–673.
“What Hope Remains?”
in ''The New Republic'', December 14, 2011. On
Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...
, ''An Awareness of What is Missing: Faith and Reason in a Post-Secularist Age'' and
Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American feminist philosopher and gender studies scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In ...
, Jürgen Habermas, et al., ''The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere.''


Chapters

* "Science, Realism, and the Unworlding of the World" in ''The Blackwell Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism'', Mark Wrathall and Hubert Dreyfus, eds. (Blackwell, 2006) * "Hammer without a Master: French Phenomenology and the Origins of Deconstruction (or, How Derrida read Heidegger)" in ''Histories of Postmodernism'', Mark Bevir, et al., eds. (Routledge, 2007) * "The Artwork Beyond Itself: Adorno, Beethoven, and Late Style" in ''The Modernist Imagination: Essays in Intellectual History and Critical Theory in Honor of Martin Jay''] (co-editor with Warren Breckman, et al., Berghahn Books, 2008)


References


External links


Peter E. Gordon's Main Faculty Page

Gordon's Faculty Web Page at CES:

The Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History
* Gordon's brief introduction to intellectual history
"What is Intellectual History?"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Peter 1966 births 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American historians of philosophy American male essayists American male non-fiction writers Harvard University Department of History faculty Harvard University Department of Philosophy faculty Heidegger scholars Intellectual historians Living people Reed College alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni