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Philosophy in Exile: The Contrasting Experiences of Ernst Cassirer and Raymond Klibansky in Oxford

Graham Whitaker

in Ark of Civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930-1945

This chapter explores the life of Ernst Cassirer, whose engagement with Oxford was relatively brief. Cassirer’s experiences provide an example of one of the passing scholars for whom Oxford offered a ... More

This chapter explores the life of Ernst Cassirer, whose engagement with Oxford was relatively brief. Cassirer’s experiences provide an example of one of the passing scholars for whom Oxford offered a crucial staging-post and respite in their enforced peregrinations. His experiences are contrasted with that of another refugee philosopher, Raymond Klibansky, whom Cassirer had first met in Germany in 1926. Central to both their work and lives was the Warburg Library, which had been moved from Germany to London. Whitaker’s chapter highlights how personality could triumph over academic output and subject area when it came to securing a place at Oxford. The ‘Olympian’ Cassirer, with his faulty English and naturally reserved character, did not make the same impression as the ‘charming and debonair’ Klibansky, who quickly made friends and found supporters at All Souls and Oriel Colleges.Less

Valedictory Lecture: My Philosophical Development (and Impressions of Philosophers Whom i Met Along the Way)

G. A. Cohen

Michael Otsuka (ed.)

in Finding Oneself in the Other

This chapter talks about how the author had come to study philosophy, his impressions on the philosophers he'd encountered in his studies, and other anecdotes from his academic career. It covers ... More

This chapter talks about how the author had come to study philosophy, his impressions on the philosophers he'd encountered in his studies, and other anecdotes from his academic career. It covers Cohen's childhood in the 1940s up until his academic career, which was still progressing by the 1960s—the point at which this chapter concludes. Along the way the chapter shares some reflections on how “So many of the things that we do and that matter so much to us we do both for good and for bad reasons.” Excluded here is the story of his encounter with Isaiah Berlin, as it has already been detailed in chapter 1.Less

Jacob Leib Teicher between Florence and Cambridge: Arabic and Jewish Philosophy in Wartime Oxford

Anna Teicher

in Ark of Civilization: Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930-1945

This chapter traces the life of refugee scholar Jacobs Leib Teicher from archives and family sources. Born a Polish Jew, Teicher studied Arabic and Jewish philosophy in Italy, gaining his degree in ... More

This chapter traces the life of refugee scholar Jacobs Leib Teicher from archives and family sources. Born a Polish Jew, Teicher studied Arabic and Jewish philosophy in Italy, gaining his degree in philosophy and oriental languages at Florence University, while also completing a course of study at the Italian Rabbinical College. The chapter traces his precarious status as a foreign Jew in Italy and then in Britain until his post-war appointment to a Lectureship in Rabbinics at Cambridge. Supported by the SPSL, Teicher spent parts of the war in the cosmopolitan circles of Oxford, though he had difficulties adapting. He worked on the Corpus Platonicum project with philosopher Raymond Klibansky, before moving to London as secretary to the Jewish representative on the National Council of the Polish Government-in-Exile.Less