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

The Legacy of Liberal Judaism: Ernst Cassirer and Hannah Arendt's Hidden Conversation
ISBN-10
1782380086
ISBN-13
9781782380085
Category
History
Pages
246
Language
English
Published
2013-10-30
Publisher
Berghahn Books
Author
Ned Curthoys

Description

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.

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