Philosophy Chair Professor David Johnson Elected YC Professor of the Year by Graduating Class
Yeshiva College (YC) Philosophy Department Chair Professor David Johnson was elected “Professor of the Year” by YC’s graduating class.
The Lilian F. and William L. Silber Professor of the Year is gifted annually to a full-time faculty member in both Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women. The recipient is chosen by vote of the senior class. This year, each senior was permitted to vote for three professors to receive the prize, with Johnson receiving the most votes.
Johnson, the only full-time philosophy professor at YC, has been teaching at Yeshiva University since 1996. This semester, he had been absent for several weeks due to illness, and was elected Professor of the Year by students following his return to campus.
“I have been greatly honored by the senior class, and accept this award with gratitude and astonishment,” Johnson told The Commentator.
Given the small number of philosophy majors, he expressed surprise at having been elected for the honor, telling students at the final meeting of his Friday seminar that it was “about as surprising as Spinoza being elected Pope.”
Courses Johnson has taught include surveys of Ancient & Medieval and Modern Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion, Philosophy of Language and most other philosophy courses offered at YC. He is most known for his course on logic, often considered one of the hardest at YC, which features a five-question final that can last between seven and 10 hours. Every couple of semesters, he also teaches one of four different seminars on topics in advanced logic for the few interested students.
Originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, Johnson received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Nebraska and a PhD in philosophy with a focus on logic from Princeton. He has also written two books on issues in philosophy of religion, metaphysics and epistemology, “Hume, Holism, and Miracles” and “Truth Without Paradox.”
In his acceptance speech at Tuesday’s Wilf Campus awards ceremony, Johnson thanked the graduating class and his colleagues in the faculty and administration, including YC and SCW Dean Rebecca Cypess and Associate Dean William Stenhouse.
“There’s a saying among harmonica players,” Johnson began his address, “that you should be careful about encouraging a harmonica player. And the same thing can be said about encouraging a philosopher to talk.”
Johnson also spoke about the importance of the disciplines of philosophy and logic.
“Why do we do philosophy at all? It’s because we want to know the answer to fundamentally important questions: Does Hashem exist? Are you just a physical object? Is there free-will? and so on. How are we to find the answers? We have to look at the arguments we’re given. And so philosophy becomes in practice the study of arguments, which is why logic is so important.”
He also spoke about his absence this semester. In late February, Johnson had come to school sick one Wednesday and could not come in on Friday. When a group of four philosophy students came to visit him at his apartment on Sunday to see if he was well, they decided to involve a doctor in a neighboring apartment who convinced him to go to the hospital for what turned out to be pneumonia.
“When in the hospital my students visited me, as did many of my colleagues in the faculty,” Johnson told the senior class. “When I got home, my students visited and brought me food. And my colleagues visited me and brought me food. And my many Orthodox Jewish neighbors visited me — and brought me food.”
Johnson, who is a Christian, also encouraged the graduating students to keep faith in God, arguing that belief in God is rational. He urged them to reject naturalism, a view that involves rejecting the existence of God and life after death.
Some of Johnson’s students shared their feelings about his receiving the award with The Commentator.
“Being a philosophy major, Dr. Johnson has been at the center of my YC career, and I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher and mentor,” Richard Siegal (YC ‘25), told The Commentator. “As his students know, he’s not just a professor, but a guiding light — and a genuine friend! — to whom we owe our abilities to reason. I couldn’t conceive of a more deserving recipient for this reward. Dr. Johnson — thanks for everything!”
“I consider Dr. Johnson to be a rebbi of mine,” Nachshoni Rothenberg (YC ‘26) shared with The Commentator. “Beyond his expertise in and love for his subject, his humility and humor together with his clear respect and care for his students are a pillar of this college. None of us could have studied philosophy here without him.”
In addition to Johnson, several other professors also won awards. Professor Jeffery Mollin was elected “Professor of the Year” by the graduating class at SCW, and Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff and Professor Alyssa Schuck won the senior class awards for general and Judaic studies respectively. Rabbi Elisha Friedman was elected “Adjunct of the Year” by the graduating class at YC.
This year, two awards for faculty excellence on each campus were also bestowed by the dean’s office. Professors Maria Zaitseva and Brian Trimboli won the awards on Wilf Campus, and Professors Elizabeth Goldman and Margarita Vigodner won the Beren Campus awards.
Photo Caption: Professor David Johnson
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University
