The Legacy of Liberal Judaism

Ernst Cassirer and Hannah Arendt's Hidden Conversation
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78533-216-6
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, 246 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 365 g

Comparing the liberal Jewish ethics of the German-Jewish philosophers Ernst Cassirer and Hannah Arendt, this book argues that both espoused a diasporic, worldly conception of Jewish identity that was anchored in a pluralist and politically engaged interpretation of Jewish history and an abiding interest in the complex lived reality of modern Jews. Arendt’s indebtedness to liberal Jewish thinkers such as Moses Mendelssohn, Abraham Geiger, Hermann Cohen, and Ernst Cassirer has been obscured by her modernist posture and caustic critique of the assimilationism of her German-Jewish forebears. By reorienting our conception of Arendt as a profoundly secular thinker anchored in twentieth century political debates, we are led to rethink the philosophical, political, and ethical legacy of liberal Jewish discourse.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Curthoys, Ned

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Identität & Biographien
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien: Philosophie, Aufklärung, Wissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1. ‘This Man of Our Destiny’: Moses Mendelssohn, Nathan the Wise, and the emergence of a Liberal Jewish Ethos

Chapter 2. Diasporic Visions:  the emergence of Liberal Judaism

Chapter 3. Abraham Geiger: Rabbi and Writer

Chapter 4. Hermann Cohen’s Prophetic Judaism

Chapter 5. Ernst Cassirer and the Ethical Legacy of Hermann Cohen

Chapter 6. Ernst Cassirer: The Enlightenment as Counter-History

Chapter 7. Hannah Arendt: The Task of the Historian

Chapter 8. Hannah Arendt: A Question of Character

Conclusion: The Legacies of Liberal Judaism

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Curthoys, Ned
Ned Curthoys is a Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia. He has co-edited two edited collections, Edward Said: the Legacy of a Public-Intellectual (Melbourne University Press, 2007) and Representing Humanity in the Age of Enlightenment (Pickering and Chatto, 2013) and has contributed to journals including Theory and Event, Comparative Literature Studies, Intellectual History Review and Journal of Genocide Research.