Aaron W. Hughes. Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, 170 pp.
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: Beyond Particularism and Universalism, by Professor Aaron W. Hughes, primarily engages with the question of whether Jewish philosophy is a misnomer, or if it is a pursuit worthy of serious consideration.In addition to the introduction 'Occupation,' there are six chapters in the book; 'Impossibilities,' 'Irreconcilability,' 'Kaddish,' 'Authoritarianism,' 'Rosenzweig's Patient,' and 'Beyond.'The introduction leads the reader to the definition of Jewish philosophy and the various terms which give it meaning.Hughes seems to be highly critical of the adjective 'Jewish' as applied to any field of study, including mathematics, physics and sociology.Can these fields of study be done in a Jewish way, or is the aforesaid adjective irrelevant to such subjects?Inspired by the French theorist, Jacques Derrida, Hughes deals with a deconstruction of Jewish philosophy -and its apparent oscillation between particularism and universalism.The argument brought forward is that meaning does not arise from fixed differences but is produced and performed in ways that are consistently partial and provisional through différance, whereby differential meanings are endlessly deferred.At any point in time, a term can simultaneously mean anything and nothing at all.This frame of thinking is extended to Jewish philosophy.Hughes asks the question: Does Jewish philosophy use universal methods to articulate Judaism's particularity, or does it justify Judaism's particularity with appeals to illuminating the universal?The primary contention is that Jewish philosophy might as well be a category error in which a property is ascribed to something which might not have that specific attribute.According to Hughes, Jewish philosophy needs to be rethought, if not actually given a different name.For Hughes, Jewish philosophy deals with the issue of Jewish peoplehood, while at the same time extending the question, "how does Jewish philosophy produce a particular kind of Judaism?" Throughout the text, he addresses the difficulty in conceptualising Jewish philosophy by considering the varied perspectives of Jewish thinkers across history, including the Andalusians Saadya Gaon and Maimonides to Mendelssohn and Levinas in the modern period.Gilian Rose, by contrast, thinks that there can be no such thing as "Jewish Philosophy."Similarly, there is no Jewish
Source: Agatheos :
Author: Arief Arman
Institution: SOAS University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4405626786