Die exponierten Vertreter des deutsch-jüdischen Denkens tragen Spannun-gen aus, die für die Moderne kenn-zeichnend sind. Die Erfahrung des Lebens innerhalb vielfältiger, oft miteinander konfligie-render Sinnzusammenhänge, wird in diesem Denken zum Ausdruck ge-bracht. Die Forschung Paul Mendes-Flohrs widmet sich der Philosophie, der Literatur und der Kulturgeschichte des deutschen Judentums unter die-sem Aspekt. In diesem Sammelband sind Beiträge enthalten, die das deutsch-jüdische Denken und damit verwandte Themen als Prisma der Moderne betrachten.

_The first major biography in English in over thirty years of the seminal modern Jewish thinker Martin Buber_ An authority on the twentieth‑century philosopher Martin Buber, Paul Mendes-Flohr offers the first major biography in English in thirty years of this seminal modern Jewish thinker. The book is organized around several key moments, such as his sudden abandonment by his mother when he was a child of three, a foundational trauma that, Mendes-Flohr shows, left an enduring (...) mark on Buber’s inner life, attuning him to the fragility of human relations and the need to nurture them with what he would call a “dialogical attentiveness.” Buber’s philosophical and theological writings, most famously _I and Thou,_ made significant contributions to religious and Jewish thought, philosophical anthropology, biblical studies, political theory, and Zionism. In this accessible new biography, Mendes-Flohr situates Buber’s life and legacy in the intellectual and cultural life of German Jewry as well as in the broader European intellectual life of the first half of the twentieth century. (shrink)

The concept of faith has remained inscrutable to thinkers for centuries. The late Nathan Rotenstreich believed that faith was such a difficult topic for so many because of its inextricable links to theology and religion. _On Faith_, Rotenstreich's last work which was edited and prepared for publication by Paul Mendes-Flohr, attempts to detach the concept from its religious underpinnings and consider it in its own right, as a human phenomenon and cognitive attitude. Faith, Rotenstreich contends, should not (...) be confused with its historical manifestations. By making faith a philosophical rather than a theological matter, he explores its essence as an awareness of how we relate within mundane reality to all that is beyond the human world. Arguing for the intentionality of faith, Rotenstreich shows how it structures a variety of relations that range from the experience of the holy to the nature of cults, traditional religion, and the idea of servitude to God. Rotenstreich's phenomenological study will be of great importance for religious scholars as well as for philosophers. Nathan Rotenstreich was professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and his works include _Jews and German Philosophy_ and _Reason and Its Manifestations: A Study of Kant and Hegel_. (shrink)

Noting that one may hear without listening, the article probes the phenomenological and epistemic distinction between hearing and listening. To listen is to be attuned to voices muffled by silence or camouflaged by a defensive rhetoric resonant with a voice inflected by festering wounds, existential and political. In exploring how one is to listen to these voices of silence, I draw upon Martin Buber’s concept of dialogical “inclusion” of others’ stories, to listen without interpretation to allow the voice behind his (...) – or her or their – story, be it merely etched viscerally in the language of silence, to dwell aside one’s own story in a dialogue unencumbered by perceptions of the Other forged by cultural, social, political constructs, and perhaps most insidiously one’s own defensive postures. (shrink)

Eleven essays on the life and thought of the Jewish philosopher and theologian Franz Rosenzweig.

This volume of essays takes as its point of departure Martin Buber's principle of dialogue, which he applied as a comprehensive hermeneutic method for the study of various cultural phenomena. The volume critically evaluates the methodological purchase to be gained by the introduction of Buber's conception of dialogue in political theory, psychology and psychiatry, and religious studies.

The article traces the evolution and crystallization of Buber’s philosophy of dialogue. It focuses on his consideration of the epistemological and ontological issues attendant to the principium individuationis, the subject of his doctoral dissertation of 1904. Culminating with the publication of Ich und Du in 1923, this process was punctuated by life experiences that led him to affirm rather than to seek to transcend the principium individuationis as the ontological ground of being manifest in the matrix of everyday life, which (...) we are beckoned to sanctify through I-Thou relations. (shrink)

A critical evaluation of Martin Buber's work and its diverse aspects of modern thought and culture.

A definitive, international guide to the thought of the most important twentieth-century Jewish philosopher. In his 1923 essay, I and Thou, the philosopher, theologian, and activist Martin Buber introduced a philosophy of dialogue that achieved a global, interdisciplinary resonance. For Buber, dialogue was more than a conversation; dialogue discloses something essential about our orientation and our lives with one another. This companion assembles twenty-six scholars from a dozen countries to explore Buber's international reputation and legacy in education, interfaith relations, Judaism, (...) philosophy, politics, and psychology. The result is an essential guide to one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. (shrink)

Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929) was a German‐Jewish philosopher who became the focus of a renaissance of Jewish religious life and thought in Weimar Germany. Born into a highly assimilated Jewish family in Cassel, Germany, Rosenzweig affirmed Jewish religious faith in the midst of a philosophical and existential crisis. As a student, he was initially drawn to the neo‐Hegelianism popular in German academic circles during the first decade of the twentieth century. Although he would write his doctoral dissertation on Hegel – later (...) published with the support of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, Hegel und der Staat (1920, 2 vols) – Rosenzweig slowly lost his conviction that the dialectical providence of history would assure the ultimate convergence of truth and existence. Already in the autumn of 1910, when he was completing his dissertation under the supervision of Friedrich Meinecke, he questioned Hegel's ascription of an ontological status to history. History is not the unfolding of Being, he wrote to a friend, rather it is but the discrete acts of men. “We see God in every ethical event, but not in one complete Whole, not in history.” Indeed, history, which takes shape in the phenomenal world, cannot serve as a vessel for divinity. “Every human act becomes sinful as it enters history”; although the actors may have intended otherwise, the morality of an act is neutralized by the material world of necessity. We are hence, Rosenzweig reasoned, left with only one possible conclusion: God redeems humanity not through history but – “es bleibt nicht anders übrig” – through religion (Briefe, vol. 1, pp. 111–13). (shrink)

The young Martin Buber was so much taken by the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche that at the age of 17 he undertook a translation of the work "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" into Polish. Even though the project had to be abandoned, Buber's enthusiasm for Nietzsche did not wane and traces of his influence are to be found in the different stages of his thought. The article shows how Buber came to introduce a Nietzschean perspective into the nascent Zionist movement. In fact, (...) Martin Buber's sharing in the vision of a reawakening of the Jewish people to its long-slumbering life-force was very much marked by the influence of Friedrich Nietzsche. The influence of the author of the "Zarathustra" upon Buber was particularly attached to the renewed concept of culture that was operative in the early stages of the Zionistic movement. /// Ainda durante a vida de Nietzsche, o jovem Martin Buber sentiu-se de tal maneira atraído pelo pensamento do autor do livro "Assim Falava Zarathustra" que, quando apenas tinha 17 anos de idade, deu início a uma tradução desta obra para Polaco, da qual, contudo, apenas concluiria a primeira parte, pois logo se apercebeu de que idêntica tradução tinha sido já encomendada a outra pessoa. O entusiasmo de Buber por Nietzsche, contudo, não esmoreceu, de tal forma que se podem encontrar traços da sua influência em cada uma das diferentes fases de evolução do seu pensamento. O presente artigo mostra até que ponto foi graças a Buber que uma certa perspectiva nietzschiana acabou por se introduzir no movimento zionista nascente. Foi sob a influência de Nietzsche, com efeito, que se deu a adesão de Buber à ideia de que era necessário retirar o povo judeu do seu adormecimento histórico e do esquecimento da sua própria forçavital. Essa influência, contudo, encontra-se sobretudo impressa no conceito de cultura que haveria de marcar a fase inicial do movimento zionista. (shrink)

Drawing upon Hebrew Scripture and post-biblical Jewish sources, this article adumbrates the possibility of a humanism that does not require a universal metanarrative sponsored by the Enlightenment. A humanistic ethic, it is argued, can be nurtured by the principle of neighborly love, which with aid of insights from modern Jewish thinkers - Martin Buber, Hermann Cohen, Jacques Derrida, and Emmanuel Levinas - the author understands as an attitude of being attentive to the existential and material needs of the other. /// (...) Recorrendo às fontes da Escritura Hebraica e do Judaísmo pós-bíblico, o presente artigo pretende clarificar a possibilidade de um humanismo que não fique dependente de uma meta-narrativa universal enraizada no projecto do Iluminismo. O autor defende que uma ética humanística pode ser apoiada pelo princípio do amor ao próximo, o qual, mediante o recurso às intuições dos pensadores judaicos mais recentes - Martin Buber, Hermann Cohen, Jacques Derrida, e Emmanuel Levinas - o autor compreende como sendo uma atitude que consiste em permanecer atento às necessidades materiais e existenciais do outro. (shrink)

Giuseppe Gallis konsequentes Streben nach einer angemessenen Berücksichtigung beider Pole, des Subjektpols ebenso wie des Objektpols, sowohl in der Forschung als auch in allen Bereichen des menschlichen Lebens kommt im vorliegenden Sammelband in allen Arbeiten zum Tragen. Galli eröffnet damit auch neue Felder f8r die gestalttheoretische Forschungs- und Anwendungspraxis. Er erschließt Themen, die nicht zuletzt auch f8r die medizinischen, philosophischen, psychologischen und psychotherapeutischen Aufgabenstellungen zentral sind. Er plädiert nicht nur allgemein für einen dialogischen Ansatz in der zwischenmenschlichen Begegnung, er führt (...) in einer Reihe von Aufsätzen in diesem Sammelband auch sehr konkret die Fruchtbarkeit eines solchen Dialogs mit der Gedankenwelt eines Norbert Elias, Szvetan Todorovic und Paul Ricoeur für eine Bereicherung und Weiterentwicklung der Gestalttheorie vor Augen. (shrink)

The article explores the conceptual antinomies of the liberal notion of tolerance as the superficial leveling of differences of faith and ethical commitments to affirm the inalienable human dignity of others. In arguing that cognitive and axiological commitments are existentially grounded and thus intractable, I argue that genuine tolerance is to acknowledge and honor difference. I further question whether we are to “tolerate” what we regard as “intolerable,” politically and otherwise?

Early in the year 2000, Paul Mendes-Flohr suggested to me that we invite Paul Ricœur to Jerusalem to engage in discussions with the researchers of the Rosenzweig Centre. At the time, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Maria Diemling, and I were participating in a Sonderforschungsbereich on Jewish and Christian thought, in collaboration with Bonn University. We considered that Ricœur's work on hermeneutics and his studies of history and memory coupled with his interest in the philosophy of (...) religion had much in common with our research. After corresponding with Ricœur, I traveled to Paris, to Ricœur's residence in the community of the Murs Blancs in order to prepare the symposium. Ricœur had just finished his book La mémoire, l'histoire, l'oubli and he suggested that we base our work in the planned meeting in Jerusalem on the second section of the book. He said that he was exhausted and felt empty, after completing the manuscript. Nonetheless, his conversation was animated, touching on geo-political aspects of the war in what was formerly Yugoslavia and speculating on the reasons why armed conflict often originated and spread from the Balkans. Ricœur had given a paper to the research group of the Rosenzweig Centre, at the invitation of Stéphane Mosès, in December 1994. He was excited about coming to Jerusalem. I returned to Jerusalem with a typescript of the section of the book we were to discuss, and we prepared for the meeting in regular sessions of the research group. (shrink)

Salomo Friedlaender was a prolific German-Jewish philosopher, poet, and satirist. His Kant for Children is intended to help young people learn about Immanuel Kant’s philosophy. Friedlaender writes, “Morality is inherent in us organically. But its abstract formula should be imprinted on schoolchildren.” Published in 1924, 200 years after Kant’s birth, the book sparked interest in some quarters, attracting the attention of the first Newbery Award winner, Hendrik Willem van Loon, who corresponded with Friedlaender in 1933 requesting an English translation. That (...) didn’t happen. This is the first English translation of the book. During the National Socialist period, Kant for Children troubled the Nazis. They banned Friedlaender’s work. Rebecca Hanf, friend of Ernst Marcus, the philosopher who claimed to have resurrected Kant, recognized that Friedlaender’s Kant for Children could counter the Nazi appropriation of Kant and realign Kant with egalitarianism and anti-fascist politics, meaning the book has contemporary relevance in light of an international resurgence of fascism. A lifelong student of Kant’s works, Friedlaender deserves a wider audience among Kant scholars and students. This first English translation includes an introduction to Friedlaender as well as essays by Paul Mendes-Flohr, Sarah Holtman, Robert Louden, Kate Moran, Krista Thomason, and Jens Timmermann. For translating and editing Kant for Children, Bruce Krajewski received The 2023 Silvers Grant for Work in Progress from the Robert B. Silvers Foundation. The Robert B. Silvers Foundation is a charitable trust established by a bequest of the late Robert B. Silvers, a founding editor of the New York Review of Books, with the aim of supporting writers in the fields of long-form literary and arts criticism, the intellectual essay, political analysis, and social reportage. (shrink)

Der folgende Band von "Labyrinth: An International Journal for Philosophy, Value Theory and Sociocultural Hermeneutics" erscheint als Festschrift zum siebzigsten Geburtstag von Herta Nagl-Docekal. Die darin enthaltenen Studien sind drei Themenkreisen gewidmet, die eine zentrale Rolle in ihrem Werk spielen, nämlich der Ethik, der Freiheit und der Liebe. In der Studie von Susanne Moser (Wien) "Vom Wert der Liebe" wird die historische Entwicklung der philosophischen Konzeptionen der Liebe untersucht und die enge Verbindung zwischen Liebesthematik und Werteproblematik aufgezeigt. Inwiefern Werttheorie und (...) Freiheitstheorie zusammenhängen zeigt Yvanka B. Raynova (Wien/Sofia) anhand eines Vergleichs zwischen den axiologischen Konzeptionen von Jean-Paul Sartre und Paul Ricoeur. In den Beiträgen von Brigitte Buchhammer (Wien) und Philippe Lauria (Paris) werden die feministischen Ansätze zu einer Religionsphilosophie und der Bestimmung der Frau bei Edith Stein erörtert. Desweiteren wird der Bezug zwischen Selbst, Liebe und Moral in den Essays von Ana Lita (New York) und Laurie Calhoun (Oakland) analysiert. Der Band wird eingeleitet mit einem Einblick in das Werk Nagl-Docekals und ihren aktuellen Beiträgen zu einer Neubewertung der Moderne und endet mit einer Buchrezension zu ihrer kürzlich erschienen Monographie Innere Freiheit. Grenzen der nachmetaphysischen Moralkonzeptionen (2014). (shrink)