scholarly journals Pluralism Out Of The Sources Of Judaism: Religious Pluralism Without Relativism

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Jospe
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Jewish Scholar ◽  
Epistemological Relativism ◽  
Ways Of Life

Jewish theology is compatible with religious pluralism, based on the paradigm of the Jewish obligation to live in accordance with the commandments of the Torah while accepting the legitimacy of other ways of life in accordance with the paradigm of the universal “seven commandments of the children of Noah.” Jospe here answers two challenges to this thesis, one, voiced by Christian theologians, that pluralism equals relativism, and a second, voiced by the Jewish scholar, Menachem Kellner, that there are no sources for pluralism in Jewish tradition and that pluralism itself makes no sense. In presenting his arguments, Jospe invokes a wide range of ancient, medieval and modern thinkers, probing the theological possibilities for pluralism within Jewish tradition and its boundaries with relativism. In doing so, he argues that one should differentiate between moral relativism, a non-negotiable category, and epistemological relativism, where there is room for compromise.

Pluralism out of the Sources of Judaism

2012 ◽  
pp. 87-122
Author(s):  
Raphael Jospe
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Moral Relativism ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Epistemic Relativism ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Epistemological Relativism

This chapter argues for the legitimacy of Jewish religious pluralism, citing precedents and conceptions that arise indigenously ‘out of sources of Judaism’. As for the Christian challenge of equating pluralism with relativism, it constructs a paradigm of religious pluralism that avoids moral relativism, while at the same time avoiding the kind of extreme epistemological relativism of radical deconstructionism. As for Jewish precedents, there is ample evidence for both internal and external pluralism in the sources. In his comments on Genesis 33:20 and Exodus 6:9, Rashi cites this verse to justify diverse, internal pluralistic interpretations. Rabbi Yishma'el interpreted this verse as alluding to both internal and external pluralism. Such pluralism, even if it entails a degree of moderate epistemic relativism, does not imply a strong relativistic conception of multiple truths, but of multiple perspectives on the truth, or what the rabbis called the ‘seventy facets of the Torah’.

Holiness in Jewish Thought

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ways Of Life

Holiness is a challenge for contemporary Jewish thought. The concept of holiness is crucial to religious discourse in general and to Jewish discourse in particular. “Holiness” seems to express an important feature of religious thought and of religious ways of life. Yet the concept is ill defined. This collection explores what concepts of holiness were operative in different periods of Jewish history and bodies of Jewish literature. It offers preliminary reflections on their theological and philosophical import today. The contributors illumine some of the major episodes concerning holiness in the history of the development of the Jewish tradition. They think about the problems and potential implicit in Judaic concepts of holiness, to make them explicit, and to try to retrieve the concepts for contemporary theological and philosophical reflection. Holiness is elusive but it need not be opaque. This volume makes Jewish concepts of holiness lucid, accessible, and intellectually engaging.

scholarly journals Psychology, Meaning Making, and the Study of Worldviews

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Taves ◽  
Egil Asprem ◽  
Elliott Daniel Ihm
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Cognitive Level ◽  
Multidisciplinary Study ◽  
Human Ability ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Ways Of Life

To get beyond the solely negative identities signaled by atheism and agnosticism, we have to conceptualize an object of study that includes religions and non-religions. We advocate a shift from “religions” to “worldviews” and define worldviews in terms of the human ability to ask and reflect on “big questions” ([BQs], e.g., what exists? how should we live?). From a worldviews perspective, atheism, agnosticism, and theism are competing claims about one feature of reality and can be combined with various answers to the BQs to generate a wide range of worldviews. To lay a foundation for the multidisciplinary study of worldviews that includes psychology and other sciences, we ground them in humans’ evolved world-making capacities. Conceptualizing worldviews in this way allows us to identify, refine, and connect concepts that are appropriate to different levels of analysis. We argue that the language of enacted and articulated worldviews (for humans) and world-making and ways of life (for humans and other animals) is appropriate at the level of persons or organisms and the language of sense making, schemas, and meaning frameworks is appropriate at the cognitive level (for humans and other animals). Viewing the meaning making processes that enable humans to generate worldviews from an evolutionary perspective allows us to raise news questions for psychology with particular relevance for the study of nonreligious worldviews.

Science and the Kuzari

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Tzvi Langermann
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Scientific Opinion

The ArgumentYehuda Halevi's Kuzari was written in response to the challenge posed to Judaism by a highly spiritual, nondenominational philosophy. Science, especially that embodied in the Hellenistic heritage, was a major component of philosophy; thus, if for no other reason than to make Judaism a serious competitor, Halevi had to show that the Jewish tradition as well possessed a body of scientific knowledge. The superiority of the Jewish teachings was demonstrated chiefly by appeal to the criteria of tradition, consensus, and authority, which, in Halevi's judgement, were in practice the criteria most influential in deciding scientific opinion. Despite the rather unique setting for the book, and the wide range of stances Halevi develops, the Kuzari was rather quickly and smoothly absorbed into the mainstream of Jewish religious thought.

scholarly journals Pensamiento económico en la t radición judía, con especial referencia a Moisés Ben Maimónides: la perspectiva austriaca

2017 ◽  
pp. 213-255
Author(s):  
Abie Grynspan Gurfinkiel
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Austrian School ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Laissez Faire

Despite not having a formal treatise that encompasses economic thought, the Jewish tradition, through its legal and religious texts, tackles a wide range of economic subject matter. As early as Biblical times, Jewish law and Jewish moral doctrine began to govern economic activity and social life in ge-neral. Both of these continued to evolve until the 12th century when Moses ben Maimonides, interpreting and documenting the Jewish oral tradition laws (with Aristotelian influence as well as that of Ibn Bayya, among other philosophers), developed an individualistic, subjectivist, and rationalist moral philosophy ex-ploring topics such as the theory of subjective value, the paradox of value, hu-man action, the limits of reason, social cooperation, and division of labor. This article investigates, from an Austrian School perspective, the economic thought contained in the Jewish tradition and its possible impact on the emer-gence of the capitalist system and modern civilization. Additionally, it explores the influence that the Jewish tradition and Maimonides’ philosophy had on the doctrines of Saint Thomas Aquinas; doctrines which were taken and enriched by the Scholastics of Salamanca and are, according to some thinkers, the foun-dation of the Austrian School of Economics. Keywords: capitalism, scholasticism, Judaism, laissez-faire. JEL Classification: A13, B11, N01, Z12. Resumen: A pesar de no existir un tratado que englobe un pensamiento econó-mico, la tradición judía, a través de textos legales y religiosos, aborda temas económicos de naturaleza muy variada. Desde tiempos bíblicos se fueron for-mando el derecho judío y la doctrina moral judía, que regulaban la actividad económica y la vida social en general. Estos fueron evolucionando, y ya para el siglo XII, Moisés ben Maimónides, interpretando y documentando las leyes orales de la tradición judía, con influencia aristotélica y de Ibn Bayya, entre otros filósofos; había desarrollado una filosofía moral individualista, subjetivis-ta y racionalista; explorando temas como la teoría del valor subjetivo, la para-doja del valor, la acción humana, los límites de la razón, la cooperación social y división del trabajo. En el presente artículo se investiga, desde una perspectiva austriaca, el pensamiento económico que contiene la tradición judía, y su posible impacto en el surgimiento del sistema capitalista y la civilización moderna. Asimismo, se estudia la influencia que tuvo la tradición judía y la filosofía de Maimónides, en las doctrinas de Santo Tomás de Aquino; las cuales, tomadas y enriqueci-das por los escolásticos de Salamanca, son de acuerdo a algunos pensadores, el tronco de la Escuela Austriaca de Economía. Palabras clave: capitalismo, escolástica, judaísmo, laissez-faire. Clasificación JEL: A13, B11, N01, Z12.

scholarly journals NIMBYism as Place-Protective Action: The Politics of Housebuilding

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom O'Grady
Keyword(s):  
Protective Action ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Housing Developments ◽  
New Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Main Driver ◽  
Conjoint Experiment ◽  
Ways Of Life

Using British data, I argue that opposition to housebuilding primarily arises from a desire to preserve the character of one’s area and existing ways of life, and to protect communities against rapid changes that could result from new housing developments. A wide range of characteristics that lead to these ‘place-protective’ motives, including conservatism and long-term residence in an area, strongly predict opposition to housebuilding. This contrasts with theories emphasising homeowners’ price anxiety as the main driver. A conjoint experiment demonstrates that opposition to housebuilding can be reduced by designing new developments that preserve and protect existing communities, such as providing new public services alongside them. Doing so increases the coalition for housebuilding by raising the support of groups most opposed to housebuilding, without lowering the support of others. This paper also adds a comparative focus to the politics of housebuilding, discussing institutional features that increase the prominence of place-protective motives.

Ethical Demands on Creditors in Jewish Tradition

2010 ◽  
pp. 220-238
Author(s):  
Yoel Domb
Keyword(s):  
Legal Culture ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Personal Rights ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Over Time

This article demonstrates that Judaism has a unique and valuable ethical contribution to the legal culture that developed over time regarding the recovery of loans. Until recently, other traditions considered borrowers slaves at the mercy of their creditors, and, even today, borrowers in many countries can be imprisoned. However, Judaism from its outset fought to protect the personal rights and freedoms of the borrower. This approach reached its apex in the Talmud, where the lender is enjoined not to make contact with the borrower and to avoid even chance meetings with him if it may cause embarrassment. This article discusses ancient legal systems that provide a creditor with a wide range of tools for retrieving loans. Some systems allowed taking the borrower himself as forced collateral against the loan. This article further explains the ethical underpinnings of the Jewish approach to debt and Debt retrieval laws. A discussion on corporate creditor ethics winds up this article.

Global Philosophy of Religion and its Challenges

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujin Nagasawa
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Religious Perspectives ◽  
Global Theology ◽  
Meta Theory

This chapter argues that if the philosophy of religion is to take religion seriously, it must expand its focus and incorporate a wide range of religious perspectives. The chapter develops a ‘global philosophy of religion’ by critically assessing two earlier attempts to transform the philosophy of religion: Ninian Smart’s ‘philosophy of worldviews’ and John Hick’s ‘global theology’. The global philosophy of religion is more constructive than these two approaches because it emphasizes common issues that philosophers in distinct traditions can tackle together. Moreover, the global philosophy of religion moves beyond interreligious dialogue without demanding commitment to any controversial meta-theory, such as religious pluralism or religious inclusivism.

Justifying Interreligious Pluralism

2012 ◽  
pp. 61-86
Author(s):  
Avi Sagi
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
First Offers

This chapter explores the philosophical justification for religious pluralism and provides a critique of religious exclusivism. The crucial challenge to religious exclusivism is what can be called ‘Hume's dilemma’. The source of Hume's dilemma is the existence of mutually incompatible religions; it conveys the problem evoked by interreligious pluralism. The chapter presents two central strategies for dealing with this problem. The first offers a modified version of validation in general and of religious justification in particular. The second offers a modified version of the concept of religious truth. These strategies make pluralism a position more defensible than exclusivism. The chapter then looks at the concept of religious loyalty, and assesses whether the endorsement of pluralism implies the breakdown of religious traditions in general and of Jewish tradition in particular. It argues that endorsing pluralism requires a religious revolution and while it exacts a heavy religious price, it is pluralism more than toleration that is compelling to contemporary Jews living in a modern democratic world.

scholarly journals Local Autonomy in Action: Beijing's Hong Kong and Macau Policies

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Chou
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Cultural Expression ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Ways Of Life

This paper investigates how Beijing governs its two special administrative regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macau through leverages on their local autonomy. First, a conceptual analysis of local autonomy will be provided. Local autonomy is more than a zero-sum game between the central and local authorities over how much power should be granted or taken from the local authorities; it also concerns the space for cultural expression and the use of local customs in public administration. Second, the degree of local autonomy in Hong Kong and Macau will be critically examined. On paper, both SAR governments are able to freely make decisions on a wide range of policies. In practice, however, Beijing has the absolute authority to override the decisions of Hong Kong and Macau. It is argued that the autonomy in cultural expression can compensate for the institutional constraints on the two SARs’ decision-making power and is thus able to alleviate public discontent – as long as the constraints do not conflict with the people's core values and ways of life.

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