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In Memoriam: David Weberman (1955-2026)

Brian Leiter

(MOVING TO FRONT FROM YESTERDAY, I PUBLISHED IT, BUT NOT TO THIS BLOG!)

I was very sorry to learn from Kati Farkas that Professor Weberman has died. He was a serious scholar of 20th-century Continental philosophy, especially hermeneutics, who taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Georgia State University, and then for the last twenty years at the Central European University, first in Budapest, then in Vienna. Comments are open for remembrances from those who knew Professor Weberman, and those who would like to comment on his work.

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10 responses to “In Memoriam: David Weberman (1955-2026)”

  1. Cathy Mason

    David was my colleague and friend for the last 3 years at CEU. He was unfailingly kind and friendly, and always incredibly philosophically thoughtful. In the last few years he became very interested in ideas about ‘humane philosophy’, and we read various texts about it together. It was an ideal he personified in his own approach to philosophy. His quiet wisdom and good humour will be much missed.

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  2. Kati Farkas

    David was my colleague for twenty years at CEU, and it was pure pleasure to work with him. He was a gentle, humorous person, and a perfect conversational partner both in general, and also when it came to philosophy. Even though he worked mainly on contintental philosophy at a dominantly analytic department, we never had a barrier of communication. He engaged with philosophical questions very straightforwardly, as questions on their own right and independently of “the literature”. On everyday matters he could be so vague that sometimes I wondered whether he does it on purpose – I think he probably didn’t! He was interested in all sorts of things; he was one of my very few non-Hungarian colleagues who made a serious effort to learn Hungarian while we were in Budapest. He also spoke German (something that came handy when the university moved to Vienna). He retired at the end of the last academic year, but we were all hoping he would be around as a professor emeritus for a long time. We will miss him terribly.

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  3. Tim Crane

    David was a genuinely non-partisan philosopher. He had been working on a book on the topic of ‘understanding’ for many years; he was interested in 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, especially Heidegger, Gadamer and post-war French philosophy, but he would discuss any topic in philosophy without labelling it as analytic or continental. He had the rare ability to summarise concisely and dispassionately the views of other philosophers, even those whose views are often regarded as ‘obscure’, and he invaiably raised simple, pertinent questions. In this he reminded me of one of his teachers, Raymond Geuss, though he lacked Geuss’s pessimism and scepticism about systematic philosophy. David was utterly lacking in vanity and academic ambition, but he dedicated himself to his students and to the communal pursuit of truth and wisdom. We all learned an enormous amount from him and we will miss him enormously, he still seemed so young.

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  4. Tuomo Tiisala

    I met David Weberman last October at the conference his colleagues had organized to honor his work at CEU, in Vienna. I hadn’t read any of his work. But I decided to read his two papers on Foucault before we got together a few weeks later to talk about some philosophical interests in common. I told him that this is some of the very best work on Foucault that I know, especially his second paper (2000) that builds on the earlier one (1995). We spoke for an hour at the café, and then I walked him home around the corner, close to Belvedere. I couldn’t help asking myself if this would be our first and last conversation. I became hopeful, when David said, at his front door, that I should come over some other time. But now I can only cherish the memory of this encounter with a kind man, when I keep revisiting his impressive work.

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  5. Andrea Vitangeli

    I met David at a conference of the Society for European Philosophy in Budapest in the summer of 2023, where he was one of the keynote speakers. We shared an interest in Heidegger and aesthetics, which led to long, absorbing conversations over the course of the conference days. He had a kind of fresh curiosity and enthusiasm, along with the palpable openness and kindness others here have already noted. I was in touch with him again last summer over email. I didn’t know that would be the last time we spoke. I will remember the hours spent talking philosophy with him, brightened by his gentle, humane presence.

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  6. James Rosen

    David and I were close friends from 10th grade. We edited our high school newspaper in a mainly Jewish Detroit suburb. His father Harry Weberman was a beloved counselor at our high school. David and I took a year off college after our sophomore years and traveled to Europe together, settling in Munich. I returned to the states after a year and resumed my college studies at Berkeley, but David stayed in Munich. He would never live again in the United States. He was a brilliant scholar and a wonderful friend, living in Munich, Budapest, and Vienna. David was also a wonderful father to his brilliant daughter Lucie, now studying philosophy at Cambridge University. And he was a popular professor who advanced the philosophy careers of many of his students. His passing leaves a deep void in the lives and hearts of so many people. I will miss him immensely.

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    1. James Rosen

      One more thought: David was born July 2, 1955, not quite two months after me — so he was 70, not 68, at the time of his passing.

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      1. Brian Leiter

        Thank you

  7. Freya Weberman

    Many thanks to each of you for your posts, sharing your experiences as well as your kind thoughts about my brother. Your words are a gift to me as my family and I struggle with his passing. With appreciation, Freya Weberman

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    1. James Rosen

      I wanted to add that I visited David in Vienna last summer. We spent a wonderful week together, picking up our half-century friendship as always while engaging in lively discussions on subjects ranging from philosophy and politics to the Holocaust and the differences between how Germany and the United States have responded to their darkest chapters. We listened to live jazz at an intimate sweet club, a wonderful pastime we first enjoyed as teenagers at still-vibrant Bakers Keyboard Lounge in Detroit. We laughed remembering how I would read and edit/critique his philosophy papers — with him bestowing the high praise that my insights were “pretty good for a non-philosopher.” I’m so grateful that we got to spend that time together. His passing leaves a void in my life that I will fill with cherished memories of our many adventures together.

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