Hans Adler, Halls-Bascom Professor of German and Comparative Literature, was recently awarded the Herder Medal, the highest honor of the International Herder Society.
The Herder Medal is awarded biennially to an outstanding scholar. Adler received the honor for his scholarship on the Enlightenment in general and on Johann Gottfried Herder in particular.
In his remarks on the occasion, Herder Society President Ralf Simon (University of Basel) emphasized the significant and lasting impact of Adler’s publications, noting that they marked a major turn in scholarship. Simon singled out a groundbreaking 1988 Adler article on Herder’s epistemology that "quickly became one of the most frequently cited articles overall in 18th-century research." Adler was praised for the transdisciplinary profile of his work "as a theoretician, a historian of philosophy, and a scholar of German literature."
Adler has authored numerous volumes and articles on 18th- through 20th-century literature and philosophy, complemented by extensive activities as editor and translator. He has been instrumental in illuminating the complex relationship to concepts of reason and rationality that marks the European Enlightenment. As editor, he has produced the first comprehensive reference volume on Herder, the 2009 Companion to the Works of Johann Gottfried Herder.