Daniel Brandes

BA(Tor), MA(Northwestern), PhD(Northwestern)

Daniel Brandes is an assistant professor in the Foundation Year Program. He also teaches metaphysical and religious topics in the Early Modern and Contemporary Studies Programs. After receiving his BA in philosophy and religious studies at the University of Toronto, Dr. Brandes completed a PhD in philosophy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Chicago. His dissertation was entitled, “When Everything is Possible: On Plurality and Evil in the Work of Hannah Arendt” (2003). In 2003, Dr. Brandes began teaching at the University of King’s College as a teaching fellow in FYP. He has been an assistant professor since 2006.

Current Research Projects

Dr. Brandes is currently working on several forthcoming publications, including a book-length manuscript on Arendt and a series of thematically related essays on the constellation of freedom and evil in contemporary continental theory.

Selected Publications

• “The Miraculous Birth of the Given: Reflections on Hannah Arendt and Franz Rosenzweig” in Judaism, Liberalism and Political Theology, ed. R. Rashkover and M. Kavka. Indiana University Press, 2014.
• “Fackenheim on Self-Making, Divine and Human” in Hegel and Canadian Political Thought: Unity of Opposites?, ed. N. Robertson and S. Dodd. University of Toronto Press, 2018.
• “Nietzsche, Arendt, and the Promise of the Future”Animus 14 (Fall 2011).
• “On Messianic Strains in Arendt’s Theory of Political Action,” Tikvah: University of Toronto Journal for Jewish Thought (Winter, 2010)

Interests

German Idealism, Heidegger and post-Heideggerian thought, phenomenology and theology, 20th century developments in Jewish thought.