| This book has two objectives: to get secular philosophers to pay more attention to Jewish philosophy and to get Jewish philosophers to pay more attention to secular philosophy. One can think of the book as a kind of dialogue: an ongoing discussion among Plato, Aristotle, Maimonides, Judah Halevi, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Cohen, Buber, and Rosenzweig. Although not philosophers in the technical sense of the word, the prophets have also contributed to this dialogue, as have contemporary thinkers like Rawls, Rorty, Fackenheim, and Schwarzschild. From a historical perspective, such a dialogue is an impossibility, but from a philosophic one, it is not. Religion bids us to turn away from the transitory and focus on the eternal. It is hardly surprising, then, that the status of eternal truth is an eternal question. |
| To sustain the dialogue motif, and to reach two separate audiences, I had to make a number of editorial decisions. It was impossible to present an overview of the thought of each thinker I discuss. Since it was not my purpose to write a compendium of the history of Western philosophy, I have concentrated on selected texts and themes. In each case, there was material I had to leave out. A reader who wants a fuller treatment of Maimonides, Spinoza, Kant, Cohen, or Buber should consult secondary sources devoted to the thought of these figures. In the same way, I have tried to avoid esoteric questions and to refer to sources which are readily available. As in all of my philosophic writing, I have tried to present ideas in a readable fashion and to keep the use of technical terms and foreign words to a minimum. Citations from Maimonides' Guide of The Perplexed are from the Pines translation. |
| There are a number of people and institutions I would like to thank. Material from chapters 2, 3, and 6 was presented to the Academy for Jewish Philosophy and can be found in the publications of its proceedings. I wish to thank its members and especially its talented Director, Norbert Samuelson, for providing a stimulating environment in which to test new ideas. Portions of chapter 7 were published in Philosophy and Literature in 1987. I wish to thank |
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