Modern Jewish Philosophy
In the modern world, many of the traditional assumptions that had served Judaism well for over two thousand years began to appear far more open to question. While the medievals were certain that the Torah was written by God and its laws for his chosen people were eternal, modern thinkers found these axioms far less obvious. Despite the inauspicious beginning of such public doubting — with Baruch Spinoza's excommunication — modern Jewish philosophy has nonetheless flourished.
In this course we will explore what got Spinoza in trouble and what thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig did about it.