Pragmatism and Jewish Thought: Eliezer Berkovits’s Philosophy of Halakhic Fallibility

IF 0.2 2区 哲学 0 PHILOSOPHY
Nadav Berman Shifman
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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Abstract Both Immanuel Kant and Moses Maimonides wrote lengthy treatments of the biblical garden of Eden. For both philosophers the biblical story served as an opportunity to address the genealogy of morals. I argue here that the two treatments offer deep insights into their respective philosophical anthropologies, that is to say, into their assessments of the human person and of moral psychology. Contrary to much that has been written about Maimonides as a proto-Kantian, I expose the profoundly different and even opposed conceptions of human nature and of reason at the heart of the respective philosophies. For Kant, the first exercise of reason in the garden is an act of rebellion that jettisons the human person from the womb of nature into a post-natural freedom. The repudiation of the natural is the beginning of an ethical life, according to Kant—a life to be dominated by respect for a human dignity beyond the natural. For Maimonides, in contrast, reason is a philosophical torah li-shmaʿ. Rational understanding is an understanding of the laws of a nature fecund with the presence of the divine. Exposing the reason inherent in nature is the only path to knowledge of God and whatever communion with the divine is available to human beings. Such knowledge transforms the heart as well as fills the mind, embedding the human person as moral actor in a God-filled universe.
实用主义与犹太思想:Eliezer Berkovits的哈拉卡谬误哲学
伊曼努尔·康德和摩西·迈蒙尼德都对《圣经》中的伊甸园进行了冗长的论述。对于这两位哲学家来说,圣经故事是一个探讨道德谱系的机会。我在这里认为,这两种治疗方法为他们各自的哲学人类学提供了深刻的见解,也就是说,为他们对人类和道德心理学的评估提供了深刻的见解。与许多关于迈蒙尼德作为康德的原型的著作相反,我揭示了在各自哲学的核心,关于人性和理性的深刻不同,甚至是对立的概念。对康德来说,理性在花园里的第一次练习是一种反叛行为,它将人类从自然的子宫中抛弃,进入一种后自然的自由。根据康德的观点,对自然的否定是伦理生活的开始——一种以尊重超越自然的人类尊严为主导的生活。相反,对于迈蒙尼德来说,理性是哲学律法。理性的理解是一种对自然法则的理解,它充满了神的存在。揭示自然的内在原因是认识上帝的唯一途径,也是人类与神性交流的唯一途径。这样的知识改变了心灵,也充实了思想,使人在神充满的宇宙中成为道德的行动者。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.40
自引率
25.00%
发文量
12
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