Motzkin, Gabriel - Emeritus

Personal:

Born 1945, Jerusalem; Ph.D. 1982, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley; Lect. 1985; Sen. Lect. 1990; Assoc. Prof. 1996.

Research Interests:

The history of ideas. History of religion; Catholicism and historical thought. History of memory.

Research Projects:

1. Catholicism and historical thought. Funding: The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation (USA); Max Planck Institute for History; Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Zentrum fr Interdisciplin?re Forschung, Bielefeld.

2. History of the humanities. Funding: Bundesministerium fr Forschung und Technik (BMFT).

Abstracts of Current Research:

Historical vision of the past:

Research examines the genesis of a secular vision of the past in the context of the late seventeenth century debate about whether history or fiction is the best way of obtaining access to the past.

The conflict between tradition and history:

A book-length study recently completed analyzes the conflict between tradition and history as alternative ways of organizing the past in nineteenth century thought. This conflict formed part of the confrontation between religious and secular culture.

Theories of memory in early twentieth century thought:

This study explores the early twentieth century debate on whether memory is important in our study of the past (Bergson and Proust versus Heidegger).