Library Catalog

The Legacy of Liberal Judaism : Ernst Cassirer and Hannah Arendt's Hidden Conversation /

Curthoys, Ned

The Legacy of Liberal Judaism : Ernst Cassirer and Hannah Arendt's Hidden Conversation / Ned Curthoys. - 1 online resource (246 p.)

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 ‘This Man of Our Destiny’: Moses Mendelssohn, Nathan the Wise and the Emergence of a Liberal Jewish Ethos -- Chapter 2 Diasporic Visions: The Emergence of Liberal Judaism -- Chapter 3 Abraham Geiger: Rabbi and Writer -- Chapter 4 Hermann Cohen’s Prophetic Judaism -- Chapter 5 Ernst Cassirer and the Ethical Legacy of Hermann Cohen -- Chapter 6 Ernst Cassirer: The Enlightenment as Counter-History -- Chapter 7 Hannah Arendt: The Task of the Historian -- Chapter 8 Hannah Arendt: A Question of Character -- Conclusion The Legacies of Liberal Judaism -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Comparing the liberal Jewish ethics of the German-Jewish philosophers Ernst Cassirer and Hannah Arendt, this book argues that both espoused a diasporic, worldly conception of Jewish identity that was anchored in a pluralist and politically engaged interpretation of Jewish history and an abiding interest in the complex lived reality of modern Jews. Arendt’s indebtedness to liberal Jewish thinkers such as Moses Mendelssohn, Abraham Geiger, Hermann Cohen, and Ernst Cassirer has been obscured by her modernist posture and caustic critique of the assimilationism of her German-Jewish forebears. By reorienting our conception of Arendt as a profoundly secular thinker anchored in twentieth century political debates, we are led to rethink the philosophical, political, and ethical legacy of liberal Jewish discourse.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9781782380078 9781782380085

10.1515/9781782380085 doi


Jewish philosophy--20th century.
Reform Judaism--Philosophy.
HISTORY / Jewish.

Jewish Studies, History (General).

181.06