Lexington Books
Pages: 178
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-7936-3769-7 • Hardback • June 2021 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-7936-3770-3 • eBook • June 2021 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Kim Treiger-Bar-Am is a legal academic in Israel.
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1Values
Chapter 2Freedom
Chapter 3Morals
Chapter 4Law
Concluding Remarks
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
In this brave and unusual book, Kim Treiger-Bar-Am takes a leaf from Socrates’ notebook and engages a wide variety of Jews on the street, as it were, in order to understand the moral intuitions that inform their lives. Moving on from this empirical base, Treiger-Bar-Am then brings the moral positions thus uncovered into conversation with the texts and teachings of Judaism. This engaging and accessible book is not a philosophical work about ethics, but a work of Jewish ethics. The first-person nature of the book’s narrative adds to its charm.
— Menachem Kellner, Chair of Philosophy and Jewish Thought, Shalem College; Wolfson Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought, University of Haifa
The crux of this book is in the title. Rather than a property that describes individuals acting in isolation from one another, freedom requires respect for other people. This claim is both true and important. What is unique about this book is that rather than demonstrate her claim by appeal to abstract principles, Kim Treiger-Bar-Am has interviewed people to get their views of what it means to be free. She is widely read in contemporary ethical theory as well as the specifics of Jewish ethics. Her passion for her subject is evident on practically every page.
— Kenneth Seeskin, Northwestern University
In Freedom and Respect in Jewish Ethics, Treiger-Bar-Am highlights deep connections between ideas and ideals integral to Jewish tradition and to modern liberal democracy. Freedom and respect inform both traditions at a fundamental level—and they can be seen as mutually reinforcing as each continues to develop through engagement with numerous contemporary challenges. The interconnection of freedom and respect emerges vividly from starting points in people’s perspectives on society, values, and what matters about being a human being. The discussion brings out the common resonances in Judaism and liberal democracy in an especially timely articulation.
— Jonathan Jacobs, Professor and Chair of Philosophy, John Jay College/CUNY