Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas

✍ Scribed by Batnitzky, Leora

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 304
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas, two twentieth-century Jewish philosophers and two extremely provocative thinkers whose reputations have grown considerably, are rarely studied together. This is due to the disparate interests of many of their intellectual heirs. Strauss has influenced political theorists and policy makers on the right while Levinas has been championed in the humanities by different cadres associated with postmodernist thought. In Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation, first published in 2006, Leora Batnitzky brings together these two seemingly incongruous contemporaries, demonstrating that they often had the same philosophical sources and their projects had many formal parallels. While such a comparison is valuable in itself for better understanding each figure, it also raises profound questions in the debate on the definitions of 'religion', suggesting ways that religion makes claims on both philosophy and politics.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 13
works by levinas......Page 15
works by strauss......Page 16
Preface......Page 19
Part One philosophy......Page 25
1 Strauss and Levinas between Athens and Jerusalem......Page 27
1.1. jewish philosophy between athens and jerusalem......Page 29
1.2. after heidegger: maimonides between athensand jerusalem......Page 32
1.3. the scope of philosophy......Page 39
1.4. back to nature?......Page 43
1.5. the philosophical return to religionor the religious turn to philosophy?......Page 46
1.6. philosophy and the problem of evil......Page 48
2 Levinas's Defense of Modern Philosophy: How Strauss Might Respond......Page 52
2.1. the argument of totality and infinity......Page 54
2.2. heidegger and husserl......Page 57
2.3. levinas and descartes......Page 59
2.4. the separable self and ethicsor descartes once again......Page 62
2.5. how to understand levinas’s use of descartes:what strauss might say......Page 66
2.6. the difference between levinas and straussor on descartes yet again......Page 71
2.7. levinas and the messianic aspirationsof philosophy......Page 76
Part Two revelation......Page 79
3‘Freedom Depends Upon Its Bondage’:The Shared Debt to Franz Rosenzweig......Page 81
3.1. levinas’s reading: rosenzweig’sopposition to totality......Page 83
3.2. strauss’s reading: god as wholly other......Page 86
3.3. what to make of this difference: levinasas post-christian philosopher......Page 91
3.4. modern philosophy and the legacy of christianity......Page 97
4 An Irrationalist Rationalism: Levinas’s Transformation of Hermann Cohen......Page 99
4.1. future and past, inside and out......Page 101
4.2. the shared criticism of spinoza: a case study......Page 104
4.3. the difference between cohen and levinas:reason vs. sensibility......Page 109
4.4. cohen, levinas, and the legacy of kant......Page 114
5 The Possibility of Premodern Rationalism: Strauss’s Transformation of Hermann Cohen......Page 118
5.1. history and truth, outside and in......Page 119
5.2. reading spinoza or on the necessity ofhistoricizing philosophy......Page 123
5.3. maimonides and the possibilityof premodern rationalism......Page 128
5.4. beyond cohen?......Page 136
Part Three politics......Page 139
6Against Utopia: Law and Its Limits......Page 141
6.1. philosophy, law, and the difference betweenjudaism and christianity......Page 142
6.2. the question of natural right......Page 147
6.3. skepticism and antiutopianism......Page 153
6.4. skepticism and religion......Page 156
6.5. religion and society, or religion in america......Page 160
7 Zionism and the Discovery of Prophetic Politics......Page 164
7.1. the early strauss: zionism and law......Page 165
7.2. strauss’s prophetic politics out ofthe sources of zionism......Page 172
7.3. levinas’s zionism: from politics to religion......Page 175
7.4. religion and politics......Page 183
8Politics and Hermeneutics: Strauss’s and Levinas’sRetrieval of Classical Jewish Sources......Page 187
8.1. strauss’s hermeneutics: esotericism,exile, and elitism......Page 188
8.2. levinas’s hermeneutic: from law to ethics......Page 196
8.3. politics and reading......Page 201
9Revelation and Commandment: Strauss, Levinas,and the Theologico-Political Predicament......Page 205
9.1. strauss and modern jewish thought:the guttmann debate......Page 206
9.2. on not acknowledging the modern breakwith the jewish past......Page 210
9.3. jewish law in america......Page 217
9.4. the challenge of contemporary jewish thought......Page 225
10Concluding Thoughts: Progress or Return?......Page 228
10.1. strauss’s philosophical legacy......Page 229
10.2. against contemporary appropriations of strauss......Page 234
10.3. is modernity worth defending?......Page 236
preface......Page 241
chapter 1. strauss and levinas between athens and jerusalem......Page 242
chapter 2. levinas’s defense of modern philosophy: how strauss might respond......Page 247
chapter 3. ‘freedom depends upon its bondage’: the shared debt to franz rosenzweig......Page 250
chapter 4. an irrationalist rationalism: levinas’s transformation of hermann cohen......Page 253
chapter 5. the possibility of premodern rationalism: strauss’s transformation of hermann cohen......Page 256
chapter 6. against utopia: law and its limits......Page 260
chapter 7. zionism and the discovery of prophetic politics......Page 265
chapter 8. politics and hermeneutics: strauss’s and levinas’s retrieval of classical jewish sources......Page 269
chapter 9. revelation and commandment: strauss, levinas, and the theologico-political predicament......Page 273
chapter 10. concluding thoughts: progress or return?......Page 279
References......Page 283
Index......Page 291

✦ Subjects

Philosophy