Introduction to Jewish Philosophy

Catalog description

What is a good human life? Does the universe have a purpose, and do we? Can we be free if the future is already known? Is there a God, and what could we truly say about such a being? For almost three thousand years, Jewish thinkers have argued with their predecessors and with each other about questions like these. This course invites you into those arguments and asks you to join them. We will not simply survey what Jewish philosophers have believed. We will do Jewish philosophy ourselves, analyzing the ideas, testing the arguments, and pressing on them with the tools of contemporary philosophy. Our readings span the full tradition: the stories and laws of the Hebrew Bible, the debates of the Talmud, the great medieval philosophers who fused the Bible and Talmud with Greek and Islamic philosophy, the systematic philosophers of the early modern period, and the philosophers writing today. Our questions may include the problem of evil, divine foreknowledge and human freedom, the nature of the soul, the origins of the cosmos, prophecy and revelation, and the meaning of a life lived under a law that claims to be divine. No background is assumed, but students will find the course more accessible with some grounding in either philosophy or Jewish texts.