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Prof. Oram Matan (Retired)
Fields of Research
Prof. Oram Matan (Retired)
School of Government and Society
  • Political philosophy/science

  • Political liberalism

  • Modernity

  • Democratic development

  • Modernization

  • Societal rationalization   

Short Bio

Prof. Matan Oram is an Associate Professor at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo. His principal area of research and teaching is political philosophy and political science. 

The overarching focus of his research is the interaction between "political liberalism" and "processes of democratic development". He examines this dynamic from a wide range of issues and topics germane to the philosophical-political discourse on modernity, in particular as refracted through contemporary political-social thought.

Prof. Oram is a senior research fellow at the Van-Leer Jerusalem Institute. He previously taught at the Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, and was a visiting Scholar at the University of Picardie – Amiens (France).

Between the years 2013-2016, Prof. Oram served as member of the Executive Committee of the Israeli Society for Political Science. 

Prof. Oram won the ISF (Israel Science Foundation) award for his book: The Hope of Enlightenment – Critical Thought and Political Theory in the Thought of Jürgen Habermas (Jerusalem: Magnes University Press, 2010). His second book – Modernity and Crisis in the Thought of Michel Foucault: The Totality of Reason – was published by Routledge in 2016. Prof. Oram is currently completing a comprehensive monograph, The Ethos of the Enlightenment and the Discontent of Modernity.   

Selected Publications

  1. Matan Oram, "The Changing Ethos of the Enlightenment in Foucault’s Discourse on Parrhesia"; Philosophy & Epistemology International Journal (PEIJ). MedWin Publishers. Vol. 1. Issue 1. Sep. 2018.

  2. Matan Oram, Modernity and Crisis in the Thought of Michel Foucault: The Totality of Reason,New-York and London: Routledge, 2017. 

  3. Matan Oram, "Political Liberalism and the Multicultural Imagination – The Vortex of Identities", Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies R&D. Vol.2, No.3| May 2017|

  4. Matan Oram, “Beyond the State's Sovereignty – the Politics of Identity and the Path to Anti-Liberal Polity”, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 2016, Vol. 72 (4), pp. 957-984.

  5. Matan Oram, Book review to: Eyal Chowers, The Political Philosophy of Zionism – Trading Jewish Words for a   Hebraic Land. Cambridge  University Press, 2011. In: Modern Judaism – A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience. Oxford University Press: August 2014.

  6. Matan Oram, "Dialogue and Communicative Action – Buber’s Philosophy of Dialogue and Habermas’ Communicative Rationality". Naharaim : 2012 | Band

  7. Matan Oram, The Hope of Enlightenment: Critical Thought and Political Theory in the Philosophy of Jürgen Habermas, Jerusalem: Magnes Press of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 2010.

  8. Matan Oram, "Communal Identity and Democratic Construction"; in N. Rothenberg, E. Schweid, (eds.), Studies on  Jewish People, Identity and Nationality. Tel Aviv, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute/Hakibbutz Hameuhad Publishing House, 2008. Pp. 109-122.  [Hebrew]

  9. Matan Oram, "The Theopolitical Foundations of Strauss's Criticism of Modernity", Naharaim 1, 2006, pp.75-94 


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