Franz Rosenzweig and the Systematic Task of Philosophy

✍ Scribed by Benjamin Pollock

• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 354
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Benjamin Pollock argues that Franz Rosenzweig's The Star of Redemption is devoted to a singularly ambitious philosophical task: grasping "the All" - the whole of what is - in the form of a system. In asserting Rosenzweig's abiding commitment to a systematic conception of philosophy often identified with German Idealism, this book breaks rank with the assumptions about Rosenzweig's thought that have dominated the scholarship of the last decades. Indeed, the Star's importance is often claimed to lie precisely in the way it opposes philosophy's traditional drive for systematic knowledge and upholds instead a "new thinking" attentive to the existential concerns, the alterity, and even the revelatory dimension of concrete human life. Pollock shows that these very innovations in Rosenzweig's thought are in fact to be understood as part and parcel of The Star's systematic program. But this is only the case, Pollock claims, because Rosenzweig approaches philosophy's traditional task of system in a radically original manner. For the Star not only seeks to guide its readers on the path toward knowing "the All" of which all beings are a part; it at once directs them toward realizing the redemptive unity of that very "All" through the actions, decisions, and relations of concrete human life.

✦ Table of Contents

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 13
Introduction: The Star of Redemption as "System of Philosophy"......Page 17
1 System as Task of Philosophy: "The Oldest System-Program of German Idealism"......Page 30
I. SYSTEM AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF ROSENZWEIG'S TIME......Page 32
II. THE ONE AND ALL......Page 37
III. SYSTEM AND THE DANGERS OF REDUCTION: JACOBI'S SPINOZA-CRITIQUE......Page 42
iv.1 The Unanswered Question Regarding Kant's System......Page 46
iv.2 The Systematic Implications of the Kantian Subject......Page 51
V. ABSOLUTE ACT VERSUS ABSOLUTE BEING: FICHTE’S SELF-POSITING "I"......Page 52
VI. ABSOLUTE IDEALISM AND THE SYSTEMATIC STANDPOINT OF THE "PROGRAM"......Page 57
VII. THE SYSTEM-PROGRAM'S LACK OF SYSTEMATICITY......Page 59
VIII. SYSTEM AS PHILOSOPHICAL PROGRAM......Page 64
IX. ROSENZWEIG'S RECOVERY OF SYSTEM AS PHILOSOPHICAL TASK FOR HIS TIME......Page 70
X. "My Real Teacher in Philosophy": Excursus on Hans Ehrenberg's Early Project of System and the Neo-Kantian Context......Page 77
2 "A Twofold Relation to the Absolute": The Genesis of Rosenzweig's Concept of System......Page 82
i.1. "System Is Not Architecture"......Page 85
i.2 System as Dialogue of Absolute Monologues......Page 93
i.3 Rosenzweig, Rosenstock, Weizsäcker, and the "Coitus of Two Sciences"......Page 99
II. "A TWOFOLD RELATION TO THE ABSOLUTE": ROSENZWEIG’S "URZELLE"......Page 108
ii.1 Nature, Revelation, and the Anamnesis of Freedom......Page 112
ii.2 Human Freedom in the System: Realizing God as the "One and All" in the "Urzelle"......Page 118
ii.3. Questions Th at Remain: From System-Concept to Star......Page 132
I. BREAKING UP THE ALL FOR THE SAKE OF THE ALL......Page 136
i.1 Fear of Death, Particularity, and the Argument over Nothing......Page 142
i.2 The Particularity of Nothing and the Hope for the All: Rosenzweig's Alternative to the Systematic Starting-Point of German Idealism......Page 152
i.3 The Particular Nothings of God, World, and Human Being......Page 160
i.4 The Differential as Determinate Nothing: Setting Out on the Path to System between Nihilism and Idealism......Page 165
ii.1 God, World, Human Being: The Elements as Systematic Unities......Page 173
ii.2 Elemental Stability and Instability: The Need for Relation and the Threat of Falling Back into Nothing......Page 185
III. EXCURSUS ON BEGINNING IN DIFFERENCE......Page 193
4 "The Genuine Notion of Revelation": Relations, Reversals, and the Human Being in the Middle of the System......Page 197
i.1 Elemental Promises in Need of Fulfillment......Page 204
i.2 Reversals into Creation......Page 210
i.3 The Factuality of Creation......Page 217
i.4 Reversals into Revelation......Page 220
i.5 Excursus on the "I" as Medium of Identity within the All......Page 226
i.6 The Factuality of Revelation and the Limits of Factuality Prior to Redemption......Page 228
i.7 Reversals into Redemption......Page 232
i.8 Realizing the All: Redemption and the Futurity of Factuality......Page 241
ii.1 The Human Being as the Height of Factuality: Reversals, Relations, and Experienced Actuality......Page 252
ii.2 "Already-Being-There": Experiencing Creation from the Middle......Page 255
ii.3 The Call to I-Hood and the Call to System: Experiencing Revelation from the Middle......Page 256
ii.4 Anticipating the Kingdom: Experiencing Redemption from the Middle......Page 259
ii.5 The Reciprocal Confirmation of Promise and Fulfillment......Page 260
ii.6 The Unity of the All and the Figure of the Star......Page 264
III. EXCURSUS ON QUESTIONS OF METHOD: FACTUALITY AND REVERSALS, THOUGHT AND EXPERIENCE......Page 269
5 Seeing Stars: The Vision of the All and the Completion of the System......Page 274
I. THE IMMEDIACY OF VISION AS COMPLEMENT TO DISCURSIVE KNOWLEDGE: THE MODEL OF INTELLECTUAL INTUITION......Page 283
II. CYCLICAL TIME AND THE VISUALIZATION OF THE ALL......Page 292
III. MIRRORING THE ALL: JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN LITURGICAL CALENDARS......Page 299
IV. BEYOND LIFE? THE POSSIBILITY OF AN IMMEDIATE VISION OF THE REDEMPTIVE ALL......Page 313
V. THE ALL, THE STAR, AND GOD'S FACE: VISION AND LIFE AT THE END OF THE STAR OF REDEMPTION......Page 320
Conclusion: Th e All and the Everyday......Page 328
WORKS BY FRANZ ROSENZWEIG......Page 333
PRIMARY SOURCES......Page 334
KANT TRANSLATIONS CONSULTED......Page 335
SCHELLING TRANSLATIONS CONSULTED......Page 336
SECONDARY SOURCES......Page 337
Index......Page 347