The Pursuit of the Ideal: Jewish Writings of Steven Schwarzschild PDF
Preview The Pursuit of the Ideal: Jewish Writings of Steven Schwarzschild
The Pursuit of the Ideal 9781438408682.pdf 3 2/26/2011 4:32:02 AM SUNY Series in Jewish Philosophy Kenneth Seeskin, editor 9781438408682.pdf 4 2/26/2011 4:32:02 AM The Pursuit of the Ideal Jewish Writings of Steven Schwarzschild Edited by Menachem Kellner State University ofN ew York Press 9781438408682.pdf 5 2/26/2011 4:32:03 AM Published by State University of New York Press. Albany e 1990 State University of Kew York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y .. 12246 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schwarzschild, Steven. The pursuit of the ideal: Jewish writings of Steven Schwarzschild I edited by t-1enachem Kellner. p. cm.-(SUI\'Y series in Jewish philosophy) Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-7914·0219·3.-ISBN 0-7914·0220-7 (pbk) l. Judaism-Doctrines. I. Kellner, Menachem Marc. 1946· II. Title. III. Series. BM60l.S39 1990 181 '.06-dc20 89-4441 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9781438408682.pdf 6 2/26/2011 4:32:03 AM Steven S. Schwarzschild Frankfurt, 1924- St. Louis, 1989 II Kings 2:12 9781438408682.pdf 7 2/26/2011 4:32:05 AM 9781438408682.pdf 8 2/26/2011 4:32:06 AM Contents Foreword by Kenneth R. Seeskin ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction by Menachem Kellner 1 1. The Personal Messiah-Toward the Restoration of a Discarded Doctrine 15 2. Do Noachites Have to Believe in Revelation? (A Passage in Dispute between Maimonides, Spinoza, Mendelssohn, and Hermann Cohen) A Contribution to a Jewish View of Natural Law 29 3. The Lure of Immanence- The Crisis in Contemporary Religious Thought 61 4. On the Theology of Jewish Survival 83 5. A Note on the Nature of Ideal Society-A Rabbinic Study 99 6. The Legal Foundation of Jewish Aesthetics 109 7. The Question of Jewish Ethics Today 117 8. Moral Radicalism and "Middlingness" in the Ethics of Maimonides 137 9. Jean-Paul Sartre as Jew 161 10. A Critique of Martin Buber's Political Philosophy An Affectionate Reappraisal 185 9781438408682.pdf 9 2/26/2011 4:32:06 AM viii CONTENTS 11. On Jewish Eschatology 209 12. Modern Jewish Philosophy 229 13. Shekhinah and Eschatology 235 Afterword 251 Notes 261 Bibliography of the Writings of Steven S. Schwarzschild 379 Index 391 9781438408682.pdf 10 2/26/2011 4:32:08 AM Foreword It is a pleasure to see this collection of Steven S. Schwarzschild's essays in print. Even the most casual reader will see in them a rigorous intellect and a passionate commitment to Jewish ideals. Imagine a complacent scholar willing to settle for minor adjustments to the prevailing ways of thought and you will be imagining everything Schwarzschild is not. His writing is forceful and stimulating. He is not given to intellectual compromises. He makes demands on his reader because he has already made considerable demands on himself. Before long the casual reader will recognize that Schwarzschild's essays do not satisfy one's thirst for greater knowledge, they enhance it. Hav ing read them, one feels a strong desire to read or reread Hermann Cohen. From Cohen, one is led to the Torah, Ezekiel, and the Talmudic sages, on the one hand, Plato, Maimonides, Leibniz, and Kant, on the other. What are the ideals to which Schwarzschild is committed? The most prom inent among them is his unswerving rationalism. Throughout his writing, there is not the slightest sympathy for obscurantist readings, leaps of faith, or dogmatic appeals to authority. To understand Schwarzschild's rationalism is to understand that reason is just another name for human dignity. He will not accept any suggestion that commandments must be appropriated in a heteronomous fashion-that God reveals without at the same time educating. He will not accept any suggestion that God is to be dissociated from the moral law and the obligation to treat all of humanity as an end in itself. For Schwarzschild, God is the eternal possibility of enlightenment. It may be said therefore that God is not the One who is perfect but the One who commands perfection from every rational agent. Apart from rationality, and the moral obligations it imposes, there is no way of referring to or appealing to God. Rationality also means a refusal to accept things as they are. Reason puts before us the goal of universal human brotherhood. The world as it is puts before us prejudice, violence, social inequality, capital punishment, and reli gious intolerance. If heteronomy destroys reason from above, then accept ance of the status quo destroys it from below. The discovery of reason is precisely the recognition that what is and what ought to be are distinct. To be ix 9781438408682.pdf 11 2/26/2011 4:32:08 AM
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