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Syllabus contents: Assignments and Grading
Policy Class Schedule and
Required Readings |
PHIL/JSIS 418: |
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Syllabus Instructor:
Prof. Michael Rosenthal
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Course
Description The Enlightenment defined the course of modern Jewish
philosophy. It criticized traditional
notions of revelation and it reconfigued the relation of the Jewish
community to
the nascent liberal state. Radical
figures like Spinoza claimed that prophecy was not a means to achieve
philosophical wisdom but only a useful way of directing people to help
each
other in society. More moderate thinkers
like Mendelssohn thought that Judaism should be a voluntary community
based on
belief, which submitted to the authority of the state, rather than an
independent political entity. The idea
of a normative symbiosis of Jewish thought with its surrounding culture
reached
an apotheosis in the early twentieth century neo-kantianism of Hermann
Cohen. Even those who rejected the
enlightenment
realized that it was impossible to avoid its influence.
Marx argued that the solution to the
so-called “Jewish Question” was the complete elimination of religion
that would
come about through the Communist revolution. Theodor
Herzl and the early Zionists believed that
assimilation was
doomed to failure and that the Jews had to adopt the idea of a
nation-state
based on a homogenous population as a political goal.
In response to the alienation of the modern
world Assignments and Grading Policy Participation:
There are several basic skills involved in
philosophy, including reading critically, writing argumentatively,
listening
carefully, and talking constructively about ideas.
If you do not attend class regularly you will
not be able to participate and develop some of these skills, especially
listening and talking. Lack of
participation may affect your final grade in a variety of ways. If you miss class you will have less time to
prepare your assignments. You will be less prepared to write your
discussion
response and papers. It is in your
interest both in terms of your grade and your education to participate
regularly in class. Discussion Questions: Each week there will be a set of discussion
questions and you are required to type a response to two of
them, one
due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, the other at the beginning of
class
on Thursday. You need to deposit your
answers in the course Catalyst Tools “Collect it Dropbox” at this URL: https://catalyst.uw.edu/collectit/dropbox/rosentha/25114.
The questions for the following week
will be handed out in class on Thursday.
There will be ten sets of questions and nineteen responses. Any answer that is deposited in the drop box
after the start of class will be awarded a maximum of 2 points. Each satisfactory response received by the
deadline is worth 5 points. The first
time a response is judged unsatisfactory it will be given 4 points. Each time thereafter it will be worth 2
points. A satisfactory response shows an
understanding of the question, some comprehension of the texts, and an
effort
to engage in critical analysis and discussion of the question and texts. If you do not turn in a response you will be
given 0 points. I will award one point (up
to a total of five points for the quarter) of extra credit for each
response I
judge to be excellent. This assignment
is worth a total of 100 points. You need
a total of 53 points to pass this assignment. Midterm Exam:
You are required to complete a take-home
midterm examination. The questions will
be distributed in class on Thursday, January 31st, and your
answers
will be due before the beginning of class on Tuesday, February 5th
in the course dropbox: https://catalyst.uw.edu/collectit/dropbox/rosentha/25114. The exam will be worth a total of 150 points. You need a minimum of 80 points to pass this
assignment. Final Exam:
You are required to complete a take-home
final examination. The questions will be
distributed in class on Thursday, March 14th, and your
answers will
be due at Final
Grade: Your final grade will be computed on the basis of the
assignments you have turned in. There is a total possible point
score of
400 points. Below you will find a conversion table. The
first
column represents total points for the course. The second column
represents the grade for total of weekly papers. The
third column represents the grade for
either the midterm or the final exam. The
fourth column represents the approximate letter grade equ 392-400
98-100
147-150 A+
4.0 Nota
Bene: (1) In order to pass this course students are required
to: a) have enough total points (i.e., at least 212 points); and
also
b) pass (i.e., receive at least 53 points in the discussion questions
and 80
points for the exams) in two of the three components of the course
(i.e., the discussion
questions, the midterm exam, and the final exam). If
you have enough total points to pass but
do not pass two of the three components you will fail the course.
Absolutely no exceptions will be made to this policy. (2) In some cases, when I calculate the
final grade, I will
also consider such factors as improvement and class participation. The following books are required. You can either purchase them at the University
Bookstore or check them out from the reserve collection at Odegaard
Library: Buber, Cohen,
Hermann. The
Ethics of Maimonides. Herzl, Theodor. The
Jewish State. Mendelssohn,
Moses. Rosenzweig,
Franz. Philosophical
and Theological Writings. Hackett,
2000. (ISBN: 978-0872204720). Spinoza, B. Theological-Political Treatise. 2nd
Edition. Hackett
Publishing, 2001. (ISBN:
0-87220-607-6). Strauss, Leo. The
Early Writings: 1921-1932. SUNY Press, 2002. (ISBN: 978-0791453308). Morgan, M.,
and Gordon, P., The
The following is a weekly guide to the discussion themes and reading assignment. While I will generally stay on track, I reserve the right to move more quickly or more slowly or even change the assignments as the quarter progresses. Week 1-2: The Enlightenment *The Enlightenment was an intellectual
movement that began
in the late seventeenth century and that emphasized the rational
critique of
received beliefs, whether religious or political. The
Enlightenment affected Jews in several
ways. There was greater social and
political toleration based on the distinction between belief and
practice,
which itself was a by-product of the Protestant Reformation. Although the Jews held beliefs that were
anathema to their Christian rulers, as long as they obeyed the
sovereign in
their actions they were to have equal rights. There
also began a movement among Jews to reform their
beliefs and
practices in accordance with a rational critique of tradition. This week and next we will examine two
important philosophical representatives of the Enlightenment: Spinoza, who was expelled from the jewish
community of Tu 1/15 –
Mendelssohn,
*The Enlightenment did not have all its
desired effects. Even in those countries
in which Jews were
given citizenship they were not always treated as equals.
In eastern Europe things remained much the
way they had been or in fact became worse as nationalist movements
tended to
squeeze the Jews even further to the margin of society.
In response to the perceived failure of the
enlightened liberal state, Karl Marx—whose father was born a Jew,
converted to
Christianity, and had his children baptised—posed the so-called “Jewish
Question,” and offered his response to it. The
Communist revolution would eliminate the conditions
that produced
the need for religion in the first place. Judaism
would evaporate along with other religions in a
communist
utopia. The other response—developed by
several thinkers, one whom was an early colleague of Marx, Moses Hess,
and the
most important of whom was a Viennese journalist named Theodor
Herzl—was Zionism. Jews should build their
own state in their
historic homeland and preserve their national autonomy with modern
means rather
than relying on the good will of others. Th 1/24 –
Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State.
*The Enlightenment ideal reached its
intellectual zenith
during the Wilhelmine Empire (1871-1918) in
*In the period leading up to the first World
War many Jews
reacted against what they perceived as a dessicated synthesis with
Kantian
thought. There was an increased interest
in the irrational, mystical dimensions of Judaism.
After the debacle of the war this mysticism
was tempered by social critique, though it still had its irrational
elements. In his own intellectual
journey Th 2/7 – Buber, I
and Thou, Third Part (123-168).
*Walter Benjamin is not always read as a
philosopher but
more often as a literary critic. While
it is true that we do not find any systematic philosophizing in his
writings,
nonetheless, we can discover some important philosophical points. There are two schools of interpreters: one, led prominently by Gershom Scholem, the
great scholar of Jewish mysticism, claims that Benjamin was a sort of
modern Jewish
mystic; the other, led by Theodor Adorno of the famous “Frankfurt
School,”
claims that he was a marxist. It is
indisputable that he went through clear phases of each, but in the end
perhaps
Benjamin is something else. His obsessive
commentary on literary texts, his sharp-eyed criticism of capitalist
society,
and his belief that language itself can intervene, messianically as it
were, in
history, marks him as a truly sui-generis
thinker of Jewish modernity. Tu 2/12 –
Benjamin, Illuminations, “Franz
Kafka” (111-140), “Some Reflections on Kafka” (141-146), “The Work of
Art in
the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (217-252). [Recommended: MJP, ch. 9] Th 2/14 – Benjamin, Illuminations, “Theses on the
Philosophy of History” (253-264).
*On the cusp of converting to Christianity
Franz Rosenzweig
rediscovered Judaism and went on to become one of its most important
twentieth
century thinkers. Although he had been a
student of the historian Friedrich Meinecke and wrote his dissertation
on Hegel,
he rejected the historicism that had prevailed in the study of religion
and of
Judaism in particular. And, although he
was an admirer, he did not follow Hermann Cohen’s Kantian rationalism. Instead, based on his reading of the German
Romantics—Schelling in particular—Rosenzweig developed a quasi-mystical
system
of idealism in which Revelation is the foundation.
In Tu 2/19 –
Rosenzweig, PTW, chapters I-II. [Recommended: MJP, ch. 7]. Th 2/21 –
Rosenzweig, PTW, chapters III-V. Tu 2/26 –
Rosenzweig, PTW, chapters VI-VII. Th 2/28 – Rosenzweig,
PTW, chapters VIII-X
*Strauss has earned a notorious reputation,
mainly through
his contemporary followers, but his own work is a serious contribution
to
modern Jewish thought. There are really
two main periods in his writings. the
time before and after his forced emigration from Tu 3/5 –
Strauss, Early Writings, Part II,
chapter II (“Zionist Writings,” 63-138). [Recommended: MJP, ch. 8] Th 3/7 –
Strauss, Early Writings, Part II,
chapters III-IV (“Writings on Spinoza,” 140-172, and “Reorientation,”
202-224).
*The systematic destruction of European
Jewry profoundly
changed not only the social and political life of Jews but also the
intellectual landscape as well. Theodor
Adorno, the leading figure of the Tu 3/12 –
Levinas, “Bible and Philosophy,” “The
Responsibility for the Other,” “Ethics and Spirit” (xerox).
[Recommended: MJP, ch. 12] Th 3/14 –
Fackenheim, “On Philosophy after the Holocaust” (xerox). [Recommended: MJP, ch. 13] [Final Exam
Distributed] We 3/20 – [Final
Exam due at
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Last Updated: |
Contact the instructor at: rosentha@u.washington.edu
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