To Turn the Soul: Essays Inspired by Jacob Klein

To Turn the Soul collects fourteen essays (three by Eva Brann) inspired by the life and thought of philosopher Jacob Klein. The contributors have been animated by Klein’s legacy—whether because they knew him, studied at St. John’s College, the institution he shaped, or found his writings a rich stimulus for thought and exploration. While the majority of the essays are based primarily on the study of Klein’s writings, they all take up an inquiry inspired by an encounter with his work. Their goal is to deepen or expand Klein’s thought by exploring its consequences, or traveling down avenues of investigation that Klein himself pursued and in some cases even initiated. The essays are offered in the hope that they inspire others to read Klein’s writings and think for themselves about the matters he takes up in them.

Andrew Romiti is a Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis,MD, where he also did his undergraduate studies. He earned his doctorate inPhilosophy from the Catholic University of America, where he wrote adissertation on Jacob Klein and Descartes.

Daniel P. Maher is Professor of Philosophy atAssumption University in Worcester, MA, where he is also Director of the CoreTexts & Enduring Questions Program. He earned his doctorate at BostonCollege with a dissertation on Aristotle’s understanding of counting andnumber, which was inspired by Klein’s work.

Eva Brann has been a member of the faculty at St. John's Collegein Annapolis, MD for more than sixty years, serving as Dean of the College from1990 to 1997. She is the author of numerous books and essays and istranslator of Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra, byJacob Klein, her colleague at St. John’s until his death in 1978.

Julia Klein is an alumna of the undergraduate program at St.John’s College in Santa Fe, NM. She holds an M.A. in Humanities from DukeUniversity and an M.A. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America,where she is also a Doctoral Candidate.

Paul T. Wilford is Assistant Professor of Political Scienceat Boston College. He graduated from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD andthen earned a second B.A. in Classics and an M.Phil. in Intellectual Historyand Political Thought from King’s College at Cambridge University, followed bya doctorate in Philosophy from Tulane University. He is the co-editor withSamuel A. Stoner of Kant and the Possibility of Progress (PENN, 2021)and with Kate Rozansky of Athens, Arden, Jerusalem (Lexington,2017).

David Lawrence Levine taught for twenty-seven years at St.John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, where he served as both Dean of the College andDirector of the Graduate Institute. He has written and lectured broadly onPlato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Rousseau, Goethe, Tocqueville, Nietzsche, Husserl,and the Great Books Program at St. John’s.

Antonio Marino Lopez is Professor of Greek Philosophy atFacultad de Estudios Superiores of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.He was a student of Jacob Klein’s at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD.

Mary Elizabeth Halper is Dean of the Humanities at Hertogprogram and, since 2021, a Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. Sheholds a B.A. in Philosophy and Classics from the University of Dallas and adoctorate in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America.

Burt C. Hopkins, PhD., is affiliated with the University of LilleFrance (UMR-CNRS 8163 STL) and the Faculty of Humanities, CharlesUniversity Prague (Czechia). He is the author of The Origin of the Logic of Symbolic Mathematics: Edmund Husserl andJacob Klein along with numerous articles on Klein’s thought as it relatesto Ancient Greek philosophy and mathematics, early modern mathematics, and thetradition of phenomenology inaugurated by Husserl early in the 20th century.

Michael Dink is a Tutor at St. John’s College in Annapolis,MD, where he also served as Dean of the College and Director of the GraduateInstitute in Liberal Education. He is an alumnus of St. John’s College inAnnapolis, where he was a student of Jacob Klein’s in a preceptorial on Plato’sSophist. He earned his doctorate from the School of Philosophy at TheCatholic University of America.

Richard F. Hassing is Research Associate Professor in theSchool of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, where he has taughtsince 1990. He holds M.A. degrees from The Catholic University of America(Philosophy) and from University of Toronto (Political Theory), and he earnedhis doctorate in Theoretical Physics from Cornell University.

Joseph Cosgrove is Associate Professor of Philosophy atProvidence College. His recent scholarship focuses on the philosophy ofscience, with a particular interest in the implications of Jacob Klein'saccount of the origin of algebra to modern mathematical physics.