The Cambridge Companion to Modern Jewish Philosophy

by Edited by Michael L. Morgan , Peter Eli Gordon

• ISBN13: 9780521813129
• ISBN10: 0521813123
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-06-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Modern Jewish philosophy emerged in the seventeenth century, with the impact of the new science and modern philosophy on thinkers who were reflecting upon the nature of Judaism and Jewish life. This collection of new essays examines the work of several of the most important of these figures, from the seventeenth to the late-twentieth centuries, and addresses themes central to the tradition of modern Jewish philosophy: language and revelation, autonomy and authority, the problem of evil, messianism, the influence of Kant, and feminism. Included are essays on Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, Fackenheim, Soloveitchik, Strauss, and Levinas. Other thinkers discussed include Maimon, Benjamin, Derrida, Scholem, and Arendt. The sixteen original essays are written by a world-renowned group of scholars especially for this volume and give a broad and rich picture of the tradition of modern Jewish philosophy over a period of four centuries.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Chronology	p. xvii
Introduction: Modern Jewish Philosophy, Modern Philosophy, and Modern Judaism	p. 1
Baruch Spinoza and the Naturalization of Judaism	p. 14
The Liberalism of Moses Mendelssohn	p. 35
Jewish Philosophy after Kant: The Legacy of Salomon Maimon	p. 53
Hermann Cohen: Judaism and Critical Idealism	p. 80
Self, Other, Text, God: The Dialogical Thought of Martin Buber	p. 102
Franz Rosenzweig and the Philosophy of Jewish Existence	p. 122
Leo Strauss and Modern Jewish Thought	p. 147
Messianism and Modern Jewish Philosophy	p. 170
Ethics, Authority, and Autonomy	p. 192
Joseph Soloveitchik and Halakhic Man	p. 209
Emmanuel Levinas: Judaism and the Primacy of the Ethical	p. 234
Emil Fackenheim, the Holocaust, and Philosophy	p. 256
Evil, Suffering, and the Holocaust	p. 277
Revelation, Language, and Commentary: From Buber to Derrida	p. 300
Feminism and Modern Jewish Philosophy	p. 324
Bibliography	p. 349
Index	p. 365
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