Levinas's Jewish thought : between Jerusalem and Athens / Ephraim Meir.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meir, Ephraim.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish philosophy.

Lévinas, Emmanuel.

Other Title:

Levinas's Jewish thought

Levinas's Jewish thought: between Jerusalem and Athens

Levinas`s Jewish Thought

Levinas`s Jewish Thought PB: Between Jerusalem and Athens

Place of Publication:

מאגנס

Summary:

This book situates Levinas in the pantheon of modern Jewish thinkers, discussing a number of themes that frequently occur in Jewish thought. The author presents Levinas's oeuvre, which comprises two parts - his Jewish, "confessional" writings and his philosophical, "professional" writings - as a unity. The question of the exact relationship between these two types of writings is a lively discussion in present day scholarship. How does Levinas perceive the relationship between revelation and philosophy, the biblical address and the logos, the Saying and the said, faith and reason? There is a long oppositional tradition which contrasts Athens with Jerusalem, yet Levinas does not take part in such an antithetical tradition. Without reconciling or harmonizing, he belongs to the philosophical tradition as well as to the Jewish tradition. This double allegiance explains the presence of philosophical terms and themes in his Jewish thought and the presence of Jewish words and ideas in his metaphysics. Levinas is presented by the author as a frequent traveler between Athens and Jerusalem and as a great translator from "Hebrew" to "Greek". However, the relationship between "Hebrew" and "Greek" in Levinas's writings is not one of prototext and phenotext or of subtext and text, but rather one of a primordial inspirational word and the conceptual discourse. In an inclusive reading, Meir shows that the acquaintance with Levinas's Jewish writings is helpful in understanding his subtle philosophical analyses and a necessary condition for the understanding of the whole Levinas.--Cover.

Contents:

Introduction: In praise of the exile

Chapter 1: Between professional and confessional writings

Chapter 2: "Greek" in "Hebrew": characteristics of Levinas's Jewish thinking

Chapter 3: "Hebrew" in "Greek": beyond Heidegger

Chapter 4: Levinas among contemporary Jewish thinkers: Buber's and Levinas's attitudes towards Judaism

The notion of revelation in Abraham Joshua Heschel's depth-theology and Levinas's ethical metaphysics

Mendelssohn's "Jerusalem" from Levinas's perspective

Chapter 5: Topics in Levinas's Jewish thought: The Jewish notion of revelation

Levinas's approach to Judaism and Talmud versus the historicism of the nineteenth-century "Wissenschaft des Judentums"

On states and the State of Israel

On theodicy and evil

Conclusion: Shem and Jafet.

ISBN:

965-7755-50-6