Breaking with strictly historical or textual perspectives, this book explores Jewish philosophy as philosophy. Often regarded as too technical for Judaic studies and too religious for philosophy departments, Jewish philosophy has had an ambiguous position in the academy. These provocative essays propose new models for the study of Jewish philosophy that embrace wider intellectual arenas-including linguistics, poetics, aesthetics, and visual culture-as a path toward understanding the particular philosophic concerns of Judaism. As they reread classic Jewish texts, the essays articulate a new set of questions and demonstrate the vitality and originality of Jewish philosophy.

Identifying philosophic questions important to Jewish thought

About the Author

Aaron W. Hughes is Associate Professor of History and the Gordon and Gretchen Gross Professor in the Institute of Jewish Thought and Heritage at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. He is author of The Texture of the Divine (IUP, 2004) and The Art of Dialogue in Jewish Philosophy (IUP, 2008).

Elliot R. Wolfson is Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He is author of Through a Speculum That Shines: Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism and Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination.

Reviews

[T]his volume's 'new direction' instead charges writers with the philosophical task of addressing lacunae in their subfields and questioning regnant orthodoxies, opposing the reductionist turn that 'smother[s] philosophy with philology or historical contexts', and analytic philosophy's 'leveling of the particular'. What emerges is a fascinating if eclectic volume in terms of style and content.11.3 2012

* Journal of Modern Jewish Studies *

The ten essays collected here are a wonderful series of studies in Jewish philosophy focusing on Talmudic, M/medieval, and modern thought Taken together, this is an excellent collection that displays some of the real fruits for Jewish philosophy that the perspective of postmodern philosophy, with its focus on language, text, interpretation, and image, can bring to the field.

* H-Judaic *

First-rate, scholarly, erudite, and interesting . . . these essays have brought some dimension of Jewish philosophy into conversation with contemporary Continental philosophy, German philosophy and history, the Talmud, rabbinics, and poetry.

-- Claire Elise Katz * Texas A&M University *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253221643
Author Aaron W. Hughes
Format Paperback
Page Count 376
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 630g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 27mm