The symposium on Yitzhak Melamed’s “Salomon Maimon and the Failure of Modern Jewish Philosophy” is now underway, and will continue through April 13! Please feel free to join the symposium by posting comments below. Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins University), Michah … Continue reading
One of the ideas of this blog was that scholars in the field should use it as a space to test-run new ideas and new work. So, I’m going to be brave and share a half-written, and incomplete draft of … Continue reading
Symposium on Jewish Bioethics and Medical Halakha is underway. Discussion will be led by Alan Jotkowitz (Ben-Gurion University), Judah Goldberg (Yeshivat Har Etzion), and Ari Schick (Michigan State University). For opening comments by Alan Jotkowitz, click here For follow-up comments by Judah Goldberg, … Continue reading
Discussion of Saul Smilansky’s (Haifa University) recent article, “A Problem About the Morality of Some Common Forms of Prayer” (Ratio 25:2, 2012) is now underway. Please click here for opening comments by Professor Scott Davison (Morehead State). Professor Smilansky has kindly agreed to … Continue reading
Rabbi Soloveitchik isolates a variety of types of repentance that emerge from the classical Jewish texts. In this paper, I reflect upon three of them, their inter-relationship and their philosophical significance – concentrating especially on the following question, in what … Continue reading
This symposium on Lara Buchak’s “Can it be Rational to have Faith?” will commence on Sunday 26 August and run through to 02 September. The symposium will be led by Sandy Goldberg (Northwestern), Trent Dougherty (Baylor), and Lara Buchak (Berkeley). All are … Continue reading
The Talmud debates whether there is such a thing as ‘breira’ or not. ‘Breira’ literally means clarification, but in the Talmudic debate that I’m talking about, it would better be translated as retroactive clarification…. or something like that. If a … Continue reading
This symposium centers around questions raised in Howard Wettstein’s paper “Doctrine” For Ari Schick’s opening comments, please click here For Wettstein’s response, please click here Please feel free to post a comment on either/both pieces.
This symposium explores the relationship between Jewish law and morality. The symposium will be led by Alan Mittleman (JTS) and Daniel Statman (Haifa). A copy of Lichtenstein’s paper can be found here A Hebrew translation of the paper can be found here. Click here for … Continue reading
A symposium led by Sari Kisilevsky (CUNY), Ken Ehrenberg (SUNY), and Laliv Clenman (Leo Baeck) will occur here between March 21–28. The discussion will center around the problems of authority and law in relation to Mishna Sanhedrin 9:6, in particular … Continue reading
Symposium on the Philosophy of Jewish Law (21-28 March)
In this thought-provoking paper, Pava defends the claim that there is a unique Jewish business ethic. In so doing, Pava sets himself apart from those like Kant and Mill who defend the universal character of ethical imperatives. In other words, … Continue reading
The relationship between Judaism and philosophy has been the subject of discussion at least since Late Antiquity. Often, however, philosophy is reified as a distinct body of knowledge, the views of Epicurus and his followers, Aristotle’s corpus, or the very … Continue reading
I was recently asked to write an article of philosophical interest for a Jewish publication. The content is aimed at the lay-person, but perhaps people here will find it interesting. I’d be grateful, as ever, for your comments. As a … Continue reading
Is Judaic logic used in the Talmud for inferring Jadaic laws analytic? Is it a priori? Judaism differs considerably from other theistic religions. One of the main features is that Jewish religious laws are not dogmatic but based on specific … Continue reading
NOTICE: The symposium on Hilary Putnam’s paper scheduled for 14-21 November, has been postponed. Apologies. The symposium on Curtis Franks’s paper will now be held between 01-08 December. Professors Franks and Andrew Schumann have kindly agreed to participate in the … Continue reading
The symposium on Eleonore Stump’s paper, “Saadia Gaon on The Problem of Evil” (Faith and Philosophy 1997, Vol. 14, No. 4: 523-49), is now underway. Prof. Stump has kindly agreed to participate in the Symposium. In what follows, I replicate the … Continue reading
I’m wondering if anyone can help me with these clarificatory questions that have arisen after reading Professor Stump’s thoroughly interesting article. 1) As Stump presents Saadia, he is of the opinion that those who are mostly righteous are punished in … Continue reading
In the recent past John Hick has produced a significant amount of material defending a particular kind of religious pluralism. Even if one disagrees with Hick’s version thereof, a religion’s theological flexibility to incorporate a just pluralism of one sort … Continue reading
There is an argument known as the Kuzari Principle.It tries to justify belief in whole swathes of the Biblical narrative,especially in the revelation at Mount Sinai. In this blog post, I hope to showthat the argument is much stronger than … Continue reading
Nathan Lopes Cardozo This article will appear in the Hebrew Makor Rishon Erev Rosh Hashana, 5772 Rosh Hashana is a day to contemplate the need for great Jewish Ideas. A day to think big. To get out of our compartmentalized … Continue reading
Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo Does Judaism really need animal sacrifices? Would it not be better off without them? After all, does the sacrificial cult not compromise Judaism? What does a highly ethical religion have to do with the collecting … Continue reading
The symposium on David Shatz’s paper, “Hierarchical Theories of Freedom and the Hardening of Hearts” (Midwest Studies in Philosophy 1997 (XXI): 202-24), is now underway. Professor Shatz has kindly agreed to initiate the symposium with some thoughts on his paper and the broader philosophical and exegetical issues … Continue reading
Since the foundation of this blog, I have slowly come round to the following questions. These questions are not posted here because I have something by way of an answer to them; something that I’d wish to share. I don’t … Continue reading
I’m marrying someone in a couple weeks. A lot of drama has arisen over his not being “Jewish” which made me wonder how the property of “being Jewish” works. First, the word “Jewish” can mean lots of different things. Here … Continue reading
In our discussions of Eli Hirsch’s paper, this week, Aaron Segal raised the following criticism of Hirsch’s general approach to the Talmud. Segal said: ‘We might wonder whether Hirsch’s assumption [that the disputants in the Talmud were making claims about … Continue reading
There is certainly much of interest in this excellent article both for philosophers and for Talmudists (and even more for those who are both). I want to focus on just one issue, which is briefly addressed at several points in … Continue reading
I have read Professor Hirsch’s paper with much interest and enjoyment. I think that his article provides a benchmark for good scholarship in the philosophy of Judaism. I have a few questions on the paper, all of which are clarificatory. … Continue reading
After a discussion I had with my brother about the nature of Torah study (is it merely an intellectual exercise or something more?) I started wondering about the following issue after he quoted a relevant point related to Tisha be’Av, … Continue reading
Having spent some time thinking about medieval approaches to the freewill problem – the apparent contradiction between God’s foreknowledge and our freedom – Rabbi Herzl Hefter introduced me to the work of the Chassidic Rebbe, R. Mordechai Yosef Leiner, otherwise … Continue reading
by Ben Elton Leopold Zunz (1794-1886) famously remarked that the Jewish Middle Ages did not come to an end until the French Revolution. He was making the important point that a state or religion does not become modern simply because … Continue reading
When we established this blog, I wrote to the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Lord Sacks. He is surely one of the greatest living rabbis and one of the greatest living Jewish philosophers/thinkers/leaders, so, I … Continue reading
So if one reads the philosophical literature on God’s relationship to time (e.g. Leftow, Swinburne, Plantinga, Hasker, Wierenga), one encounters the following phenomenon: those arguing for God’s being outside of time will draw on certain biblical verses in support of … Continue reading
My Rabbi sent me the link to a blog called “On the Mainline,” which looks like it might have some more useful stuff. (Correction: definitely interesting stuff, see also the writer’s other blog, English Hebraica)
What on earth is the philosophy of Judaism? There are six elements. Each has roots in the Pentateuch. It is part of the mystery of Jewish identity that these principles produce techniques that are fecund and unembarrassing in the hands … Continue reading
It strikes me that the solution proposed by Maimonides to the freewill problem has been wrongly equated with the solution put forward by Boethius. In what follows, I try to explain how the two proposals differ. I’d love to hear … Continue reading
Reviewed by Andrew Pessin, Professor of Philosophy, Connecticut College: apessin@conncoll.edu John Lennon and the Jews (JL&J;) is an extremely original and significant book. It should be read by every Jew, no matter where he or she stands on the long … Continue reading
posted on behalf of Yehudah Gellman Sometimes, absence of evidence for p does not count as evidence for not-p. So, there being an absence of evidence for, say, that there are 1.2 billion ants in Jerusalem does not count as … Continue reading
In recent years works by Reuven Agushewitz and Solomon Maimon have been translated into English. I wonder if anyone is able to furnish us with a book review or a detailed summary of their work. Whilst the two men couldn’t … Continue reading
I’ve written a short little book that is a re-writing of Rav Hirsch’s Nineteen Letters. The re-working tries to package the key ideas in modern language and reapply them to different historical circumstances. Here is an edited excerpt from the … Continue reading
Here are links to two articles relating to logic in the Talmud: “The Realm of the Sacred, wherein We may not Draw an Inference from Something which Itself has been Inferred: a reading of Talmud Bavli Zevachim folio 50″ by Curtis FranksDepartment of Philosophy, … Continue reading
In what follows, I copy the soncino translation of tractate Gittin 28a. I intersplice the text with my italicised comments. I have nothing of real interest to say about this excerpt. That’s why I’m appealing for your help! If we don’t want … Continue reading