Thinking Impossibilities: The Intellectual Legacy of Amos Funkenstein

380 Pages·2008·2.28 MB·English

by  Robert S. Westman

Verso Running Head i
THINKING IMPOSSIBILITIES:
THE INTELLECTUAL LEGACY
OF AMOS FUNKENSTEIN
ii Verso Running Head
Image Not Available
Amos Funkenstein
Verso Running Head iii
THINKING
IMPOSSIBILITIES
The Intellectual Legacy
of Amos Funkenstein
Edited by Robert S. Westman and David Biale
Published by the University of Toronto Press in association with
the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies
and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.
iv Verso Running Head
© The Regents of the University of California 2008
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-0-8020-9795-8
Printed on acid-free paper
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Thinking impossibilities : the intellectual legacy of Amos Funkenstein /
edited by Robert S. Westman and David Biale.
(UCLA Center/Clark series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8020-9795-8
1. Funkenstein, Amos. 2. History – Philosophy. 3. Europe –Intellectual
life – History. 4. Science – History. I. Funkenstein, Amos. II. Westman,
Robert S. III. Biale, David, 1949– IV. William Andrews Clark Memorial
Library. V. University of California, Los Angeles. Center for 17th- & 18th-
Century Studies VI. Series: UCLAClark Memorial Library series.
B29.T479 2008 901 C2008-900898-7
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the UCLA Center
for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its
publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council.
Verso Running Head v
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface ix
Introduction: The Last German-Jewish Philosopher:
An Intellectual Biography of Amos Funkenstein 3
david biale and robert s. westman
PART I: HISTORICAL DIALECTICS
1 Divine Omnipotence and First Principles: A Late
Medieval Argument on the Subalternation of the Sciences 13
steven livesey
2 Was Kepler a Secular Theologian? 34
robert s. westman
3 Jewish Traditionalism and Early Modern Science: Rabbi Israel
Zamosc’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (Berlin, 1744) 63
gad freudenthal
4 Religion, Theology, and the Hermetic Imagination in the Late
German Enlightenment: The Case of Johann Salomo Semler 97
peter hanns reill
5 Science and the Musical Imagination from the
Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period 112
dorit tanay
vi Contents
PART II: HISTORICAL ACCOMMODATIONS
6 Amos Funkenstein on the Theological Origins of Historicism 143
samuel moyn
7 Of Divine Cunning and Prolonged Madness:
Amos Funkenstein on Maimonides’ Historical Reasoning 167
abraham p. socher
8 History and/or Memory: The Origins of the
Principle of Accommodation 193
carlo ginzburg
9 Historical Consciousness Revisited: From Vico’s Mythology
to Funkenstein’s Methodology 207
joseph mali
10 Francesco Bianchini, Historian. In Memory of
Amos Funkenstein 227
j.l. heilbron
PARTIII: MAKING KNOWLEDGE
11 Amos Funkenstein and the History of Scepticism 281
richard h. popkin
12 Two Talmudic Understandings of the Dictum
‘Appoint for Yourself a Teacher’ 288
hanina ben-menahem
LAST WORDS
13 Jewish History among the Thorns 309
amos funkenstein
A Bibliography of the Published Works of Amos Funkenstein 328
Contributors 339
Index 343
Verso Running Head vii
Acknowledgments
In June 1996, the Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century
Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, hosted a confer-
ence, first suggested by its director, Peter H. Reill, entitled ‘The Scholar,
the Intellectual, the Teacher: Historical Representations, A Tribute to
Amos Funkenstein.’ Originally, it was hoped that Funkenstein himself
would be present for the occasion. Remarking on his absence, his long-
time colleague Hans Rogger said, ‘I can best envision him sitting in the
front row on the edge of his seat, twisting a lock of his hair, raising his
hand before the speaker has barely finished, paying him a compliment,
and then launching into a small counter- or complementary lecture.’
Although without benefit of such counter-lectures, the essays in this
volume, many of which were presented at the 1996 conference, engage
and honour Amos Funkenstein’s unusually wide-ranging contributions
as a historian and the example that he set in the way he taught and lived
his life as an intellectual.
This collection has been long in the making. We wish here to
acknowledge the forbearance and goodwill of those several original
contributors who did not lose hope in this book’s eventual appearance.
We are especially grateful for the steadfast support of Esti Micenmacher,
the timely interventions of Gad Freudenthal, and the invaluable work of
the staff of the William Andrews Clark Library and the Center for Sev-
enteenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies. We especially thank Ellen
Wilson for her excellent work on the index and for contributions
beyond the call of duty to the proofreading process.
The editors and authors also gratefully acknowledge permission to
reprint the following essays: David Biale, ‘The Last German Jewish
Philosopher,’ Jewish Social Studies 6, 1 (Fall 1999); Robert S. Westman,
‘Eloge: Amos Funkenstein,’ Isis 90 (September 1999): 554–7; Samuel
viii Acknowledgments
Moyn, ‘Amos Funkenstein on the Theological Origins of Historicism,’
Journal of the History of Ideas 64, 4 (October 2003); Abraham P. Socher,
‘Of Divine Cunning and Prolonged Madness: Amos Funkenstein on
Maimonides’ Historical Reasoning,’ Jewish Social Studies6, 1 (Fall 1999);
Gadi Algazi and Esti Micenmacher, ‘ABibliography of the Published
Writings of Amos Funkenstein (1937–1995),’ Aleph3 (2003).
Introduction ix
Preface
Rare it is that an intellectual can leave a profound imprint on one field,
let alone several. Amos Funkenstein’s intellectual range exceeded what
one might expect from three or four scholars of outstanding talent: the
philosophy of history from antiquity to modernity, medieval and early
modern history of science, medieval scholasticism, and Jewish history in
all of its periods. This collection of essays brings together Funkenstein’s
colleagues, friends, and students to engage with important dimensions
of his intellectual legacy. Originating in a conference in his memory,
organized by the UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-
Century Studies and held at the William Andrews Clark Library in 1996,
the essays found here are those that take direct inspiration from
Funkenstein’s remarkable thought. The editors have also invited a
number of essays that seemed particularly relevant to the purpose and
spirit of this volume, including two (by Samuel Moyn and Abraham
Socher) that initially appeared elsewhere. Only Funkenstein’s impact
on the field of Jewish studies is somewhat underrepresented here
(although Gad Freudenthal and Socher do speak directly to this
subject), for the simple reason that a special issue of Jewish Social Studies
(1999) brought together many of Funkenstein’s students in Jewish
history to consider his contributions to that field.
Funkenstein’s diverse interests were bound together by certain
common figures of thought (or topoi, as he liked to say), described in
greater detail in the editors’ introductory essay. In addition, these
themes emerge out of the essays collected here and quite naturally
dictate their organization. First and foremost, Funkenstein insisted on
searching out the premodern intellectual grounds of modern ideas.
Later thought patterns were dialectically prepared rather than bearing