Prof. Dr. Nadja Germann

Contact

Office: +49 761 203-2440
nadja.germann@philosophie.uni-freiburg.de

Office hour: Tuesday, 2pm (appointment via email)

Academic Curriculum

• M.A. in Philosophy, History, Medieval Literature and Islamic Studies (Universities of Konstanz and Tübingen)
  
• PhD 2005 in Philosophy (Tübingen University)
  
• Research Projects and Teaching Positions in Leuven (2003–2004), Freiburg (2005–2008), Boston (2007), Yale (2008–2009; 2011–2012), Baltimore (Assistant Professor, 2009–2011), and Geneva (Adjunct Professor, 2013–2016)
• Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Freiburg University (2012–2017)
• Full Professor of Philosophy at Freiburg University (2017–present)
  

Areas of Specialization

• Histories of philosophy
• Philosophies in the Middle East and the Latin Middle Ages
• Anthropology
  
• Philosophy of language
  
• Epistemology and metaphysics
  
• Natural philosophy and its epistemological principles
  

Publications (selection)

Books

• Philosophy and Language in the Islamic World (Philosophy in the Islamic World in Context, 2), ed. together with M. Najafi, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021
• The Origin and Nature of Language and Logic: Perspectives in Medieval Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Thought (Rencontres de Philosophie Médiévale, 20), ed. together with S. Harvey, Turnhout: Brepols, 2020

• De temporum ratione. Quadrivium und Gotteserkenntnis am Beispiel Abbos von Fleury und Hermanns von Reichenau, Leiden: Brill, 2006

Articles

• “The Power of Words: Al-Fārābī’s Philosophy of Language”, Ishraq: Islamic Philosophy Yearbook 10 (2022), pp. 193-211
• “How to Teach Things with Words: Al-Fārābī, Māyin’s Doubt, and the Transmission of Knowledge”, Studia Graeco-Arabica 11 (2021), pp. 1-12

• “The Structure of Knowledge: Al-Fārābī, Avicenna, and the Classification of the Sciences”, Revue de philosophie et de théologie 153 (2021), pp. 269-290

• “Philosophers, Mystics, and Other Sages: Wisdom in Early Islamic Thought”, Philosophy East and West 71 (2021), pp. 603-623, doi:10.1353/pew.2021.0043
  
• “Chartres (1-6)”, in Die Philosophie des Mittelalters, Bd. 3: 12. Jahrhundert (Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie), 2 vols., ed. L. Cesalli et al., Basel: Schwabe, 2021, vol. 1, pp. 456-544 und 555-566
• “The Causes of Grammar: Ibn Jinnī on the Nature of Language” (together with Noel A. Rivera-Calero), in Philosophy and Language in the Islamic World, ed. N. Germann and M. Najafi, Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter 2021, 49-75
• “How Do We Learn? Al-Fārābī’s Epistemology of Teaching”, in Knowledge and Education in Classical Islam: Religious Learning between Continuity and Change, 2 vols., ed. S. Günther, Leiden et al.: Brill, 2020, vol. 1, pp. 147-185
• “... but draw not nigh this tree: Evil in Early Islamic Thought”, in Evil: A History (Oxford Philosophical Concepts), ed. A.P. Chignell, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 198-224
• "... près du berceau d'une religion fanatique: Al-Fārābī in Modern Historiography", in 'Outsiders' and 'Forerunners': Modern Reason and Historiographical Births of Medieval Philosophy, ed. C. König-Pralong et al., Turnhout: Brepols, 2018, pp. 27-65
  
• "A Matter of Method: Al-Fārābī's Conception of Philosophy", in Language and Method: Historical and Historiographical Reflections on Medieval Thought, ed. U. Zahnd, Freiburg et al.: Rombach Verlag, 2017, pp. 11-38

• "Imitation – Ambiguity – Discourse: Some Remarks on al-Fārābī's Philosophy of Language", in Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph 66 (2015-2016), pp.135-166
  
• “Al-Farabi’s Philosophy of Society and Religion”, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2016 Edition, ed. E.N. Zalta, URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-farabi-soc-rel/>
• “Logic as the Path to Happiness: Al-Fārābī and the Divisions of the Sciences”, in Quaestio 15 (2015), pp. 15-30
• "Natural and Revealed Religion", in The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy, ed. L.X. López-Farjeat and R.C. Taylor, London and New York: Routledge, 2015, pp. 346-359