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Rorty and the Prophetic

Jewish Engagements with a Secular Philosopher

Edited by Jacob L. Goodson and Brad Elliott Stone - Contributions by Akiba Lerner; Gary Slater; Samuel Hayim Brody; Elliot Ratzman; Stephen Minister; Megan Craig; J. Aaron Simmons and Hannah Hashkes

The American neo-pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty dismisses the public applicability of Jewish moral reasoning, because it is based on “the will of God” through divine revelation. As a self-described secular philosopher, it comes as no surprise that Rorty does not find public applicability within a divinely-ordered Jewish ethic. Rorty also rejects the French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics, which is based upon the notion of infinite responsibility to the Face of the Other. In Rorty’s judgment, Levinas’s ethics is “gawky, awkward, and unenlightening.” From a Rortyan perspective, it seems that Jewish ethics simply can’t win: either it is either too dependent on the will of God or over-emphasizes the human Other. This book responds to Rorty’s criticisms of Jewish ethics in three different ways: first, demonstrating agreements between Rorty and Jewish thinkers; second, offering reflective responses to Rorty’s critiques of Judaism on the questions of Messianism, prophecy, and the relationship between politics and theology; third, taking on Rorty’s seemingly unfair judgment that Levinas’s ethics is “gawky, awkward, and unenlightening.” While Rorty does not engage the prophetic tradition of Jewish thought in his essay, “Glorious Hopes, Failed Prophecies,” he dismisses the possibility for prophetic reasoning because of its other-worldliness and its emphasis on predicting the future. Rorty fails to attend to and recognize the complexity of prophetic reasoning, and this book presents the complexity of the prophetic within Judaism. Toward these ends and more, Brad Elliott Stone and Jacob L. Goodson offer this book to scholars who contribute to the Jewish academy, those within American Philosophy, and those who think Richard Rorty’s voice ought to remain in “conversations” about religion and “conversations” among the religious.

  • Details
  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
Lexington Books
Pages: 246 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-1-4985-2300-4 • Hardback • February 2021 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-4985-2301-1 • eBook • February 2021 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Subjects: Religion / Philosophy, Religion / Ethics, Religion / Judaism / Theology

Jacob L. Goodson is associate professor of philosophy at Southwestern College.

Brad Elliott Stone is professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University.

Introduction by Jacob L: Goodson

Part 1: Social Hope and Solidarity: Bringing Jewish Philosophy and Rorty’s Neo-pragmatism Together

Chapter 1: Rorty, my Atheist Rabbi? Between Irony and Social Hope by Akiba Lerner

Chapter 2: Prudence in the Twenty-first Century: Moving Beyond the Morality-Prudence Distinction with Maimonides and Rorty by Jacob L: Goodson

Chapter 3: Charlottesville Pragmatism: Richard Rorty’s Neo-pragmatism and Peter Ochs’s Rabbinic Pragmatism by Gary Slater

Part 2: Politics and Prophecy: Finding Common Ground in Jewish Theology and Rorty’s Secular Liberalism

Chapter 4: The Grounds of Prophecy: Richard Rorty and the Hermeneutics of History by Samuel Hayim Brody

Chapter 5: Messianism as a Conversation Stopper? Ironic Utopianism and Pragmatist Jewish Politics by Elliot Ratzman

Chapter 6: How to Read Rorty as a Political Theologian: And Why We Should by Stephen Minister

Part 3: Conversation and Cruelty: Putting Rorty’s Philosophy in Conversation with Emmuel Levinas’s Jewish Ethics

Chapter 7: All in the Details: Rorty and Levinas on Language, Cruelty, and Togetherness by Megan Craig

Chapter 8: Two Faces of Heteronomy: Autonomy and Cruelty in Rorty and Levinas by Brad Elliott Stone

Chapter 9: “A Faith without Triumph”: Levinas, Rorty, and Prophetic Pragmatism by J: Aaron Simmons

Chapter 10: Rabbinic Reasoning and a Rortyan Ethic: Narrative, Pragmatism, and Solidarity by Hannah Hashkes

Conclusion: Rorty and Heidegger’s Nazism by Brad Elliott Stone

Rorty and the Prophetic

Jewish Engagements with a Secular Philosopher

Cover Image
Hardback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • The American neo-pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty dismisses the public applicability of Jewish moral reasoning, because it is based on “the will of God” through divine revelation. As a self-described secular philosopher, it comes as no surprise that Rorty does not find public applicability within a divinely-ordered Jewish ethic. Rorty also rejects the French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics, which is based upon the notion of infinite responsibility to the Face of the Other. In Rorty’s judgment, Levinas’s ethics is “gawky, awkward, and unenlightening.” From a Rortyan perspective, it seems that Jewish ethics simply can’t win: either it is either too dependent on the will of God or over-emphasizes the human Other. This book responds to Rorty’s criticisms of Jewish ethics in three different ways: first, demonstrating agreements between Rorty and Jewish thinkers; second, offering reflective responses to Rorty’s critiques of Judaism on the questions of Messianism, prophecy, and the relationship between politics and theology; third, taking on Rorty’s seemingly unfair judgment that Levinas’s ethics is “gawky, awkward, and unenlightening.” While Rorty does not engage the prophetic tradition of Jewish thought in his essay, “Glorious Hopes, Failed Prophecies,” he dismisses the possibility for prophetic reasoning because of its other-worldliness and its emphasis on predicting the future. Rorty fails to attend to and recognize the complexity of prophetic reasoning, and this book presents the complexity of the prophetic within Judaism. Toward these ends and more, Brad Elliott Stone and Jacob L. Goodson offer this book to scholars who contribute to the Jewish academy, those within American Philosophy, and those who think Richard Rorty’s voice ought to remain in “conversations” about religion and “conversations” among the religious.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 246 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
    978-1-4985-2300-4 • Hardback • February 2021 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
    978-1-4985-2301-1 • eBook • February 2021 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
    Subjects: Religion / Philosophy, Religion / Ethics, Religion / Judaism / Theology
Author
Author
  • Jacob L. Goodson is associate professor of philosophy at Southwestern College.

    Brad Elliott Stone is professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Introduction by Jacob L: Goodson

    Part 1: Social Hope and Solidarity: Bringing Jewish Philosophy and Rorty’s Neo-pragmatism Together

    Chapter 1: Rorty, my Atheist Rabbi? Between Irony and Social Hope by Akiba Lerner

    Chapter 2: Prudence in the Twenty-first Century: Moving Beyond the Morality-Prudence Distinction with Maimonides and Rorty by Jacob L: Goodson

    Chapter 3: Charlottesville Pragmatism: Richard Rorty’s Neo-pragmatism and Peter Ochs’s Rabbinic Pragmatism by Gary Slater

    Part 2: Politics and Prophecy: Finding Common Ground in Jewish Theology and Rorty’s Secular Liberalism

    Chapter 4: The Grounds of Prophecy: Richard Rorty and the Hermeneutics of History by Samuel Hayim Brody

    Chapter 5: Messianism as a Conversation Stopper? Ironic Utopianism and Pragmatist Jewish Politics by Elliot Ratzman

    Chapter 6: How to Read Rorty as a Political Theologian: And Why We Should by Stephen Minister

    Part 3: Conversation and Cruelty: Putting Rorty’s Philosophy in Conversation with Emmuel Levinas’s Jewish Ethics

    Chapter 7: All in the Details: Rorty and Levinas on Language, Cruelty, and Togetherness by Megan Craig

    Chapter 8: Two Faces of Heteronomy: Autonomy and Cruelty in Rorty and Levinas by Brad Elliott Stone

    Chapter 9: “A Faith without Triumph”: Levinas, Rorty, and Prophetic Pragmatism by J: Aaron Simmons

    Chapter 10: Rabbinic Reasoning and a Rortyan Ethic: Narrative, Pragmatism, and Solidarity by Hannah Hashkes

    Conclusion: Rorty and Heidegger’s Nazism by Brad Elliott Stone

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