Human Nature & Jewish Thought (eBook)

Judaism's Case for Why Persons Matter

Alan L. Mittleman (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2015
232 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-6578-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Alan L. Mittleman is professor of modern Jewish thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His books include A Short History of Jewish Ethics and Hope in a Democratic Age.

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What Jewish tradition can teach us about human dignity in a scientific ageThis book explores one of the great questions of our time: How can we preserve our sense of what it means to be a person while at the same time accepting what science tells us to be true-namely, that human nature is continuous with the rest of nature? What, in other words, does it mean to be a person in a world of things? Alan Mittleman shows how the Jewish tradition provides rich ways of understanding human nature and personhood that preserve human dignity and distinction in a world of neuroscience, evolutionary biology, biotechnology, and pervasive scientism. These ancient resources can speak to Jewish, non-Jewish, and secular readers alike.Science may tell us what we are, Mittleman says, but it cannot tell us who we are, how we should live, or why we matter. Traditional Jewish thought, in open-minded dialogue with contemporary scientific perspectives, can help us answer these questions. Mittleman shows how, using sources ranging across the Jewish tradition, from the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud to more than a millennium of Jewish philosophy. Among the many subjects the book addresses are sexuality, birth and death, violence and evil, moral agency, and politics and economics. Throughout, Mittleman demonstrates how Jewish tradition brings new perspectives to-and challenges many current assumptions about-these central aspects of human nature.A study of human nature in Jewish thought and an original contribution to Jewish philosophy, this is a book for anyone interested in what it means to be human in a scientific age.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.4.2015
• Reihe/Serie: Library of Jewish Ideas
• Reihe/Serie: Library of Jewish Ideas
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Judentum
• Themenwelt: Recht / Steuern ► Öffentliches Recht
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
• Schlagworte: Aggadah • Altruism • aphorism • Aristotle • awareness • Baruch Spinoza • Buber • Cambridge University Press • Causality • Compatibilism • Concept • Consciousness • Contingency (Philosophy) • creation myth • Daniel Dennett • Debunker • Decision-Making • Definition of man • Determinism • dichotomy • dignity • divine command theory • ecclesiastes • Emergence • Ethical Orientation • ethics • Exegesis • Existence • Existentialism • Explanation • faithfulness • Feeling • Form of life (philosophy) • Free Will • Genesis Rabbah • God • Good and evil • Halakha • Hasdai Crescas • Hebrew Bible • Heschel • Human dignity • human life • Human nature • Ideology • Image of God • Individual • Islam • israelites • Jewish philosophers • Jewish philosophy • Jewish thought • Jewish Tradition • Jews • Joseph Albo • Joseph B. Soloveitchik • Judaism • kantian ethics • Labor • Leisure • Literature • Maimonides • market relations • Messianic Age • Metaphysical naturalism • Midrash • Mishnah • Modesty • Monotheism • moral agency • Morality • moral responsibility • performative contradiction • Person • Personhood • phenomenon • Philosopher • Philosophical Anthropology • Philosophy • piety • Political Philosophy • Politics • Potentiality and actuality • Precedent • predestination • Princeton University Press • Problem of evil • Prosperity • Rabbi • rabbinic literature • Rashi • Rationality • reason • Religion • religious experience • Righteousness • Scientism • Scientist • Secularism • sellars • Shabbat • Solomon Ibn Gabirol • State of nature • Suggestion • Superiority (short story) • Theism • the new science • theory • The Philosopher • Thought • Tzelem • Understanding • uniqueness • Vocation • well-being • World to come
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-6578-6 / 1400865786
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-6578-9 / 9781400865789