Books by David Weinstein
Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewis... more Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who fled Continental Europe with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Their scholarship, though not normally considered together, is studied here to demonstrate how, despite their different disciplines and distinctive modes of working, they responded polemically in the guise of traditional scholarship to their shared trauma. For each, the political calamity of European fascism was a profound intellectual crisis, requiring an intellectual response which Weinstein and Zakai now contextualize, ideologically and politically. They exemplify just how extensively, and sometimes how subtly, 1930s and 1940s scholarship was used not only to explain, but to fight the political evils that had infected modernity, victimizing so many. An original perspective on a popular area of research, this book draws upon a mass of secondary literature to provide an innovative and valuable contribution to twentieth-century intellectual history.
Papers by David Weinstein
Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewis... more Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who fled Continental Europe with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Their scholarship, though not normally considered together, is studied here to demonstrate how, despite their different disciplines and distinctive modes of working, they responded polemically in the guise of traditional scholarship to their shared trauma. For each, the political calamity of European fascism was a profound intellectual crisis, requiring an intellectual response which Weinstein and Zakai now contextualize, ideologically and politically. They exemplify just how extensively, and sometimes how subtly, 1930s and 1940s scholarship was used not only to explain, but to fight the political evils that had infected modernity, victimizing so many. An original perspective on a popular area of research, this book draws upon a mass of secondary literature to provide an innovative and valuable contribution to twentieth-century intellectual history.
Jewish Exiles and European Thought in the Shadow of the Third Reich, 2017
Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewis... more Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who fled Continental Europe with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Their scholarship, though not normally considered together, is studied here to demonstrate how, despite their different disciplines and distinctive modes of working, they responded polemically in the guise of traditional scholarship to their shared trauma. For each, the political calamity of European fascism was a profound intellectual crisis, requiring an intellectual response which Weinstein and Zakai now contextualize, ideologically and politically. They exemplify just how extensively, and sometimes how subtly, 1930s and 1940s scholarship was used not only to explain, but to fight the political evils that had infected modernity, victimizing so many. An original perspective on a popular area of research, this book draws upon a mass of secondary literature to provide an innovative and valuable contribution...
In this 2007 study, David Weinstein argues that nineteenth-century English New Liberalism was con... more In this 2007 study, David Weinstein argues that nineteenth-century English New Liberalism was considerably more indebted to classical English utilitarianism than the received view holds. T. H. Green, L. T. Hobhouse, D. G. Ritchie and J. A. Hobson were liberal consequentialists who followed J. S. Mill in trying to accommodate robust, liberal moral rights with the normative goal of promoting self-realisation. Through careful interpretation of each, Weinstein shows how these theorists brought together themes from idealism, perfectionism and especially utilitarianism to create the new liberalism. Like Mill, they were committed to liberalising consequentialism and systematising liberalism. Because they were no less consequentialists than they were liberals, they constitute a greatly undervalued resource, Mill notwithstanding, for contemporary moral philosophers who remain dedicated to defending a coherent form of liberal consequentialism. The New Liberals had already travelled much of th...
Religions, 2012
Auerbach's goal in writing-Figura‖ and Mimesis was the rejection of Aryan philology and Nazi barb... more Auerbach's goal in writing-Figura‖ and Mimesis was the rejection of Aryan philology and Nazi barbarism, based on racism, chauvinism and the mythologies of Blood, Volk and Soil, which eliminated the Old Testament from the Christian canon and hence from European culture and civilization. Following the Nazi Revolution of 1933 and the triumph of Aryan philology, Auerbach began writing-Figura,‖ published in 1938, where he provided an apology for the Old Testament's validity and credibility, striving to prove that the Jewish Bible was inseparable from the New Testament contrary to the claims of Aryan philology and Nazi historiography. Auerbach's-Figura‖ should be considered not merely as a philological study but also, and more importantly, as a crucial stage in his response to the crisis of German philology with Mimesis, in turn, seen as his affirmation, against Aryan philology's Nazi racist and völkish views, of the humanist, Judeo-Christian foundation of European civilization.
Journal of Political Ideologies, 2006
The essay explores how Popper used 'critical interpretation' to interpret Plato, Hegel and Marx i... more The essay explores how Popper used 'critical interpretation' to interpret Plato, Hegel and Marx idiosyncratically as his 'war effort' polemic against fascism waged from forced exile in New Zealand during WWII. 'Critical interpretation' was a form of scientific 'critical rationalism' adapted to textual interpretation. Exile spurred Popper to fight. 'Critical interpretation' was his method of fighting. The Open Society and Its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism were the weapons he forged. As with our children, so with our theories, and ultimately with all the work we do: our products become largely independent of their makers. We gain more knowledge from our children or from our theories than we ever imparted to them. This is how we can lift ourselves out of the morass of our ignorance. 1
Religions, 2012
Auerbach's goal in writing ―Figura‖ and Mimesis was the rejection of Aryan philology and Nazi bar... more Auerbach's goal in writing ―Figura‖ and Mimesis was the rejection of Aryan philology and Nazi barbarism, based on racism, chauvinism and the mythologies of Blood, Volk and Soil, which eliminated the Old Testament from the Christian canon and hence from European culture and civilization. Following the Nazi Revolution of 1933 and the triumph of Aryan philology, Auerbach began writing ―Figura,‖ published in 1938, where he provided an apology for the Old Testament's validity and credibility, striving to prove that the Jewish Bible was inseparable from the New Testament contrary to the claims of Aryan philology and Nazi historiography. Auerbach's ―Figura‖ should be considered not merely as a philological study but also, and more importantly, as a crucial stage in his response to the crisis of German philology with Mimesis, in turn, seen as his affirmation, against Aryan philology's Nazi racist and völkish views, of the humanist, Judeo-Christian foundation of European civilization.
Journal of Political Ideologies, 2006
The essay explores how Popper used 'critical interpretation' to interpret Plato, Hegel and Marx i... more The essay explores how Popper used 'critical interpretation' to interpret Plato, Hegel and Marx idiosyncratically as his 'war effort' polemic against fascism waged from forced exile in New Zealand during WWII. 'Critical interpretation' was a form of scientific 'critical rationalism' adapted to textual interpretation. Exile spurred Popper to fight. 'Critical interpretation' was his method of fighting. The Open Society and Its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism were the weapons he forged.
Utilitas, 2002
This essay examines D. G. Ritchie's claim that 'in Ethics the theory of natural selection has vin... more This essay examines D. G. Ritchie's claim that 'in Ethics the theory of natural selection has vindicated all that has proved most permanently valuable in Utilitarianism'. Principally, it endeavours to determine what Ritchie means by Vindicated' and what kind of utilitarianism he thinks evolutionary theory vindicates. With respect to the kind of utilitarianism vindicated, I will show how he tries to fortify Millian liberal utilitarianism with new liberal values such as self-realization and common good. Ritchie's intellectual debts were eclectic and included mostly Mill, T.
Utilitas, 1991
Whether we are considering Spencer's or Mill's complex versions of liberal utilitarianism or Gree... more Whether we are considering Spencer's or Mill's complex versions of liberal utilitarianism or Green's 'new' liberalism, we see that both freedom and moral rights promote or foster good indirectly} Regardless of whether or not the good is utilitarian as with Mill and Spencer, or something more complex as with Green, all three theorists defend their principles of freedom and derivative systems of moral rights as normative devices which best maximize each individual's options for action. And, for all three, insofar as each individual thereby enjoys the widest possible range of options, each will more likely achieve his or her own good. Each will more likely develop his or her abilities and talents more rapidly and more fully because it is only by choosing between and acting on alternatives that abilities and talents mature. It is only by choosing between and acting on alternatives that each cultivates his or her own good and also enriches the good of others. Hence, it is only by each person's choosing and acting that the general good is promoted. This is why the theories of justice (of freedom and moral rights) of all three can be characterized as rights-oriented (indirect) strategies for realizing good. It is also why the theories of moral rights of all three are justificatory and why, in all three, good is prior to right.
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Books by David Weinstein
Papers by David Weinstein