Joseph Cohen

Joseph Cohen (born 12 August 1971 in Montreal) is a French philosopher and associate professor of Contemporary Continental Philosophy at University College Dublin. He works principally on German idealism and phenomenology,

In 2003, he became a postdoctoral researcher (fellow) in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Strasbourg II

In Strasbourg, he also worked within the framework of the Parliament of Philosophers (Strasbourg) where he and Gérard Bensussan organized the colloquium "Heidegger: The Danger and the Promise."

He was a member of the editorial board of the journal Rue Descartes (revue) from 2004 to 2008, of the journal Les Temps modernes (Éditions Gallimard) from 2009 to 2014, Currently, his position at PhiloMonaco is honorary, as he is listed as Membre fondateur honoraire.

From September 2015 to August 2016, he was a research fellow in philosophy at the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (Karl Jaspers Centre) at the University of Heidelberg.

In 2016, he and Zagury-Orly relaunched and revived the Foundation for French Judaism, the Colloquium of French-Speaking Jewish Intellectuals, and then, in 2017, the René Cassin Seminar.

In 2018, Alain Fleischer, Zagury-Orly, and Cohen founded Le Fresnoy National Studio, the interdisciplinary research group "The Coming Human."

He has held numerous visiting professorships across Europe, including the University of Heidelberg, and Jewish philosophy.

His work often analyzes the themes of sacrifice, alterity, and the spectrality of historical events.

He has co-authored several works and articles exploring the philosophy of history and the concept of justice with philosopher Raphaël Zagury-Orly. For example, in 2006, Cohen and Zagury-Orly collaborated with Jean-Luc Nancy, Jean-François Mattéi, Peter Eli Gordon, Marc Crépon, François Raffoul, Françoise Dastur, Holger Zaborowski, Peter Sloterdijk, Gianni Vattimo, Rodolphe Gasché, Mario Ruggenini, Catherine Malabou, Frédéric Neyrat, Michel Vanni, Dominique Pradelle, Gérard Bensussan,Andrea Potestà, Stéphane Habib, and Samuel Weber on the book Heidegger. Le danger et la promesse.

Cohen and Zagury-Orly have extensively explored the intersection of phenomenology, Western metaphysics, and Jewish thought. They argue that a structural isolation or exclusion of the Jewish figure from the "history of being" can be traced back to the very beginning of Heidegger's career in the early 1920s.

Selected bibliography Academic papers Cohen, J. (2012). Levinas and the Problem of Phenomenology. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 20(3), 363–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2012.699309 Cohen, J. (2012). ‘Introduction: Emmanuel Levinas’-From Philosophy to the Other. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 20(3), 315–317. Cohen, J. (2013). The Call of Philosophy. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 44(1), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2013.11006787 Cohen, J. (2014). On the Possibility of Sacrifice. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 22(4), 552–568. Cohen, J. (2017). From the Night, the Spectre. In Unconsciousness Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis (pp. 133–140). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Cohen, J. (2023). Futurités de l’être : entre le “mourir” et le “vivre” de l’Autre. Metodo, 10(2), 95–118. https://doi.org/10.19079/metodo.10.2.95 Cohen, J. (2026). Levinas, Emmanuel (1905/06–1995). In Encyclopedia of Phenomenology (pp. 1–17). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. Cohen, J. (2026). Writing, Sedimentations, Difference. On the Aporology of History. Continental Philosophy Review, 1–18.

Books Cohen, J. (2003). Questions pour Jacques Derrida. Paris: Galilée. . Cohen, J. (2005). Le spectre juif de Hegel (Paris: Éditions Galilée. - Preface by Jean-Luc Nancy. . Cohen, J. (2007). Le sacrifice de Hegel. Paris: Galilée. . Cohen, J. (2009). Judeities: Questions for Jacques Derrida. Fordham University Press. Cohen, J. (2014). Alternances de la métaphysique. Essais sur Emmanuel Levinas. Paris: Galilée. .

Co-authored works Cohen, J., & Zagury-Orly, R. (2003). Un monster de fidélité. Cohen, J., & Zagury-Orly, R. (2008). Messianismo e política: Nota sobre o sionismo religioso. Reflexão, 33(94). Recuperado de https://periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br/reflexao/article/view/3025 Cohen, J., & Zagury-Orly, R. (2012). Avant-propos. Les Temps Modernes, n° 669-670(3), 3–4. https://doi.org/10.3917/ltm.669.0003 Judéités. Questions pour Jacques Derrida (co-edited with Bettina Bergo and Raphaël Zagury-Orly; Fordham University Press, 2007) Cohen, J. (2012). The Husserl Dictionary (with Dermot Moran. Continuum International Publishing Group. Cohen, J., & Zagury-Orly, R. (2021). L'Adversaire privilégié. Heidegger, les juifs et nous (with Raphaël Zagury-Orly. Paris: Galilée. Cohen, J., & Zagury-Orly, R. (2020). History supposes Justice. Das Questões, 9(1), 43–67. https://doi.org/10.26512/dasquestoes.v9i1.31901 Cohen, J., & Zagury-Orly, R. (2023). On history. Metodo, 10(2), 7–12. https://doi.org/10.19079/metodo.10.2.7 Cohen, J., & Zagury-Orly, R. (2023). To live and die in history. In After Life (pp. 68–79). Routledge. .