Christoph Lüthy - Biography#

Christoph Lüthy is professor in the history of philosophy and science at Radboud University, Nijmegen (The Netherlands). He obtained a first-class BA in Philosophy and Modern Languages from Oxford University (1987), and after preparatory studies in physics (Basel University) moved to Harvard University, where he received a master’s degree in 1989 and his PhD in 1995 in the History of Science. After postdoc years at the Swiss Institute of Rome and the Max Planck Institute of the History of Science in Berlin, he moved to Radboud University, Nijmegen. There, he co-founded the well-known Center for the History of Philosophy and Science in 1997 (25 members in 2023). Since 2000, he has been the general editor of the Q1 journal Early Science and Medicine. In 2001, he co-founded the prestigious book series Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy and Science (Brill Academic Publisher), of which he is currently the sole editor. The main institutional objective of his academic life has been to establish and strengthen the combination of the history of philosophy with the history of science.

The topics of Lüthy’s own research exemplify the fruitfulness of combining these two disciplines. He is internationally recognised for his expertise in the history of matter theories, notably atomism, from its Greek roots up modern science. He is specifically renowned for having uncovered the biographical identities of the atomists Sébastien Basson and David Gorlaeus, and for his contributions to our understanding of Giordano Bruno, Daniel Sennert, and René Descartes. Lüthy’s other main topic is the history of scientific iconography. He has done important work on the way in which visual elements – diagrams, models, graphs, etc. – were used in different historical periods and disciplines. His examination of the often novel combinations of argument & image in Bruno, Descartes, and De Raey, or in the controversy between Johannes Kepler and Robert Fludd, are exemplary and much quoted.

Evidence of Lüthy’s standing in the field are the numerous invitations he receives for lectures – keynotes or otherwise – for contributions to volumes, for refereeing and for advisory functions. For 30 years, Lüthy has also been contributing to important newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.