Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2016
The article assesses a postcolonial critique of Emmanuel Levinas' thought. Levinas' work has rece... more The article assesses a postcolonial critique of Emmanuel Levinas' thought. Levinas' work has recently been accused of Eurocentrism, racism and xenophobia; those accusations are supported by recorded interviews, which at times voice bigoted and xenophobic remarks. What postcolonial critics suggest is that these remarks are made possible by Levinas' philosophical commitments to phenomenology and Europe as an intellectual process. The article gives an assessment of the postcolonial critique and argues that the critique is necessitous but incomplete and extends a uniformity thesis that carries with it a set of questionable assumptions regarding the connection of philosophy and historical narratives.
The JFS case demonstrates that the right to religious freedom and the subject of that right are ... more The JFS case demonstrates that the right to religious freedom and the subject of that right are vigorously contested by contemporary religious traditions in their meaning, scope, genealogy and everyday practice. Consequently, rival intellectual traditions and normative conflicts are internal to the question of the right to religious liberty itself. This suggests that religious freedom is not a single, stable principle situated outside of culture, spatial geographies or power relations but is rather a fractious, polyvalent concept unfolding through particular histories in differing national and international normative orders.
By inquiring into the translatability of Judaism and philosophy, we reawaken an ancient problem t... more By inquiring into the translatability of Judaism and philosophy, we reawaken an ancient problem that asks after philosophy’s relation with religion: What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Translation is a rejuvenated means of wrestling with this irksome question, which seeks to understand how multiple approaches to meaning and being can exist concurrently or whether any interaction forfeits multiplicity for the primacy of one form over all others. The specific issue that linguistic versions of the problem address is whether or not the languages that Judaism and philosophy speak are separate and distinct and if those distinctions are established on deeper, non-linguistic ground. For this reason, translation not only raises the problem of articulacy and context in interlingual translations, it also alludes to an ontological or metaphysical separation that speaks of different, non-shared worlds. Whether or not a translation theory addresses, repairs or upholds the opposition between religion and philosophy is in question, and translation becomes a vehicle for discussing what Jerusalem has to offer Athens and what Athens has for Jerusalem. In this essay, I examine the translation problem as an attempt to repair or re-gloss the relation between Judaism and philosophy by way of Michael Fagenblat’s recovery of a Emmanuel Levinas’ thought in his work, A Covenant of Creatures: Levinas’s Philosophy of Judaism?
Franz Rosenzweig argues that homelessness - Unheimlichkeit -begins with revelation and not the de... more Franz Rosenzweig argues that homelessness - Unheimlichkeit -begins with revelation and not the death of God.
God’s entrance into time disturbs the relationship between human and world, transforming the world picture and delivering it over to Unheimlichkeit. Rosenzweig’s thought implies that the unity that religious thinkers attribute to, for example, medieval religion is essentially mythical: revelation shatters the harmony between human and world and places humanity under duress. What is not clear is the manner of that revelation and what the previous "homely” condition described. Consequently, what Rosenzweig means by revelation, cosmos, and unheimelige, unheimliche Welt requires investigation.
Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 2016
The article assesses a postcolonial critique of Emmanuel Levinas' thought. Levinas' work has rece... more The article assesses a postcolonial critique of Emmanuel Levinas' thought. Levinas' work has recently been accused of Eurocentrism, racism and xenophobia; those accusations are supported by recorded interviews, which at times voice bigoted and xenophobic remarks. What postcolonial critics suggest is that these remarks are made possible by Levinas' philosophical commitments to phenomenology and Europe as an intellectual process. The article gives an assessment of the postcolonial critique and argues that the critique is necessitous but incomplete and extends a uniformity thesis that carries with it a set of questionable assumptions regarding the connection of philosophy and historical narratives.
The JFS case demonstrates that the right to religious freedom and the subject of that right are ... more The JFS case demonstrates that the right to religious freedom and the subject of that right are vigorously contested by contemporary religious traditions in their meaning, scope, genealogy and everyday practice. Consequently, rival intellectual traditions and normative conflicts are internal to the question of the right to religious liberty itself. This suggests that religious freedom is not a single, stable principle situated outside of culture, spatial geographies or power relations but is rather a fractious, polyvalent concept unfolding through particular histories in differing national and international normative orders.
By inquiring into the translatability of Judaism and philosophy, we reawaken an ancient problem t... more By inquiring into the translatability of Judaism and philosophy, we reawaken an ancient problem that asks after philosophy’s relation with religion: What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Translation is a rejuvenated means of wrestling with this irksome question, which seeks to understand how multiple approaches to meaning and being can exist concurrently or whether any interaction forfeits multiplicity for the primacy of one form over all others. The specific issue that linguistic versions of the problem address is whether or not the languages that Judaism and philosophy speak are separate and distinct and if those distinctions are established on deeper, non-linguistic ground. For this reason, translation not only raises the problem of articulacy and context in interlingual translations, it also alludes to an ontological or metaphysical separation that speaks of different, non-shared worlds. Whether or not a translation theory addresses, repairs or upholds the opposition between religion and philosophy is in question, and translation becomes a vehicle for discussing what Jerusalem has to offer Athens and what Athens has for Jerusalem. In this essay, I examine the translation problem as an attempt to repair or re-gloss the relation between Judaism and philosophy by way of Michael Fagenblat’s recovery of a Emmanuel Levinas’ thought in his work, A Covenant of Creatures: Levinas’s Philosophy of Judaism?
Franz Rosenzweig argues that homelessness - Unheimlichkeit -begins with revelation and not the de... more Franz Rosenzweig argues that homelessness - Unheimlichkeit -begins with revelation and not the death of God.
God’s entrance into time disturbs the relationship between human and world, transforming the world picture and delivering it over to Unheimlichkeit. Rosenzweig’s thought implies that the unity that religious thinkers attribute to, for example, medieval religion is essentially mythical: revelation shatters the harmony between human and world and places humanity under duress. What is not clear is the manner of that revelation and what the previous "homely” condition described. Consequently, what Rosenzweig means by revelation, cosmos, and unheimelige, unheimliche Welt requires investigation.
Uploads
Papers by Louis Blond
God’s entrance into time disturbs the relationship between human and world, transforming the world picture and delivering it over to Unheimlichkeit. Rosenzweig’s thought implies that the unity that religious thinkers attribute to, for example, medieval religion is essentially mythical: revelation
shatters the harmony between human and world and places humanity under duress. What is not clear is the manner of that revelation and what the previous "homely” condition described. Consequently, what Rosenzweig means by revelation, cosmos, and unheimelige, unheimliche Welt
requires investigation.
Books by Louis Blond
God’s entrance into time disturbs the relationship between human and world, transforming the world picture and delivering it over to Unheimlichkeit. Rosenzweig’s thought implies that the unity that religious thinkers attribute to, for example, medieval religion is essentially mythical: revelation
shatters the harmony between human and world and places humanity under duress. What is not clear is the manner of that revelation and what the previous "homely” condition described. Consequently, what Rosenzweig means by revelation, cosmos, and unheimelige, unheimliche Welt
requires investigation.