Jewish messianism and the history of philosophy / Martin Kavka.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kavka, Martin.

Contributor:

Class of 1924 Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lévinas, Emmanuel.

Jewish philosophy--History.

Jewish philosophy.

History.

Nonbeing.

Philosophy--History.

Philosophy.

Nonbeing--Religious aspects--Judaism.

Messiah--Judaism.

Physical Description:

xiii, 241 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Summary:

Jewish Messianism and the History of Philosophy contests the ancient opposition between Athens and Jerusalem by retrieving the concept of meontology - the doctrine of nonbeing - from the Jewish philosophical and theological tradition. For Emmanuel Levinas, as well as for Franz Rosenzweig, Hermann Cohen, and Moses Maimonides, the Greek concept of nonbeing (understood as both lack and possibility) clarifies the meaning of Jewish life. These thinkers of "Jerusalem" use "Athens" for Jewish ends, justifying Jewish anticipation of a future messianic era, as well as portraying the subject's intellectual and ethical acts as central in accomplishing redemption. In addition, Kavka argues that this formal structure of messianic subjectivity is not simply an acculturating move of Judaism to modern or medieval philosophical values, but it can also be found in an earlier stratum of the Jewish tradition, particularly in an ancient midrashic text discussing a group that refers to itself as the Mourners of Zion.

This book envisions modern Jewish thought as an expression of the intimate relationship between Athens and Jerusalem. It also offers new readings of important figures in contemporary Continental philosophy, critiquing previous arguments about the role of lived religion in the thought of Jacques Derrida, the role of Plato in the thought of Emmanuel Levinas, and the centrality of ethics in the thought of Franz Rosenzweig.

Contents:

Introduction: From Athens to Jerusalem 1

The Thesis and Two Corollaries 5

A Preliminary Sketch of the Argument 8

A Note on Gender 16

1 The Meontological Conundrum: Emmanuel Levinas and Emil Fackenheim on the Athens-Jerusalem Conflict 18

Critical Meontology: Emmanuel Levinas 20

Dialectical Meontology: Emil Fackenheim 29

2 Beyond "Beyond Being": Nonbeing in Plato and Husserl 42

The Problems of Middle Platonism 46

The Inadequacy of Unifaceted Definition 49

Nonbeing, Otherness, and the Coherence of Disparate Elements 53

Phenomenology and Meontology 58

3 Nonbeing as Not-Yet-Being: Meontology in Maimonides and Hermann Cohen 66

Return 67

Maimonidean Meontology 70

The Extirpation of the Passions in Maimonides 84

Meontology in Cohen's Logik der reinen Erkenntnis 94

From Teleology to Messianism: Cohen's Interpretation of Maimonides 106

The Integration of the Community: Religion of Reason 114

4 Nonbeing Ensouled, Nonbeing Embodied: Levinas versus Rosenzweig on the Role of the Other in Messianic Anticipation 129

The Soul, Faithful in Pathos 135

The Body, Faithful in Eros 157

Conclusion: Deepening the Roots of the Jewish Meontological Tradition, or contra the Derridean "Messianic" 193

Mourning Between Introjection and Incorporation 198

The Mourners of Zion, hadomim lo 207

Swallowing Tears 217.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 222-232) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1924 Book Fund.

ISBN:

0521831032

OCLC:

53059372

Online:

Publisher description