Editing Jewish philosophy (section)

== 20th and 21st-century Jewish philosophy ==
[[File:Martin Buber portrait.jpg|thumb|[[Martin Buber]]]]

=== Jewish existentialism ===
{{main|Jewish existentialism}}
A major trend in the timeline of modern Jewish philosophy was the attempt to develop a theory of Judaism based on [[existentialism]]. Among the early Jewish existentialist philosophers was [[Lev Shestov]] (born Jehuda Leib Schwarzmann), a Russian-Jewish philosopher. Another of the most influential Jewish existentialists in the first half of the 20th century was [[Franz Rosenzweig]]. While researching his doctoral dissertation on the 19th-century German philosopher [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], Rosenzweig reacted against Hegel's idealism and developed an existential approach. For a time, Rosenzweig considered conversion to Christianity, but in 1913, he turned to Jewish philosophy. He became a philosopher and student of [[Hermann Cohen]]. Rosenzweig's major work, ''Star of Redemption'', expounded his philosophy, portraying the relationships between God, humanity, and the world as they are connected by creation, revelation, and redemption. Orthodox rabbi [[Joseph Soloveitchik]], and Conservative rabbis [[Neil Gillman]] and [[Elliot N. Dorff]], have also been described as existentialists.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

French philosopher and [[Talmudic]] commentator [[Emmanuel Levinas]], whose approach grew out of the [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] tradition in philosophy, has also been described as a Jewish existentialist.<ref>Benjamin A. Wurgaft, [http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Theology/Thinkers_and_Thought/Jewish_Philosophy/Philosophies/Modern/Emmanuel_Levinas.shtml Emmanuel Levinas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326111249/http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Theology/Thinkers_and_Thought/Jewish_Philosophy/Philosophies/Modern/Emmanuel_Levinas.shtml |date=2015-03-26 }}, myjewishlearning.com.</ref>

=== Jewish rationalism ===
[[File:Hermann Cohen (lithograph by Karl Doerbecker).jpg|thumb|left|[[Hermann Cohen]]]]
Rationalism re-emerged as a popular perspective among Jews.<ref>"Jewish Rationalism Reemergent," ''Conservative Judaism,'' Volume 36, Issue 4, Page 81</ref> Contemporary Jewish rationalism often draws on ideas associated with medieval philosophers such as Maimonides and modern Jewish rationalists such as [[Hermann Cohen]].

Cohen was a German Jewish [[neo-Kantian]] philosopher who turned to Jewish subjects at the end of his career in the early 20th century, picking up on the ideas of Maimonides. In America, [[Steven Schwarzschild]] continued Cohen's legacy.<ref>Steven Schwarzschild, "To Re-Cast Rationalism," ''Judaism'' 2 (1962).</ref> Another prominent contemporary Jewish rationalist is [[Lenn Goodman]], who works out of the traditions of medieval Jewish rationalist philosophy.  Conservative rabbis [[Alan Mittleman]] of the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America|Jewish Theological Seminary]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jtsa.edu/x12578.xml |title=The Jewish Theological Seminary |publisher=Jtsa.edu |access-date=2012-10-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313185226/http://www.jtsa.edu/x12578.xml |archive-date=2013-03-13 }}</ref> and [[Elliot N. Dorff]] of [[American Jewish University]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.adath-shalom.ca/dorf_rev.htm |title=From Medievaland Modern Theories Of Revelation By Elliot N. Dorff |publisher=Adath-shalom.ca |access-date=2012-10-22}}</ref> also see themselves in the rationalist tradition, as does David Novak of the [[University of Toronto]].<ref>''Tradition in the public square: a David Novak reader'', page xiv</ref> Novak works in the natural law tradition, which is one version of rationalism.

Philosophers in Israel in the rationalist tradition included [[David Hartman (rabbi)|David Hartman]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-09182003-143438/unrestricted/07_aed_chapter2.pdf |title=Halakhic Latitudinarianism: David Hartman on the commanded life |publisher=Etd.lib.fsu.edu |access-date=2012-10-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624183933/http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-09182003-143438/unrestricted/07_aed_chapter2.pdf |archive-date=2012-06-24 }}</ref> and [[Moshe Halbertal]].<ref>Noam Zion, [http://www.hartmaninstitute.com/uploads/Holidays/Elu-02062008_0957_45.pdf Elu v'Elu: Two Schools of Halakha Face Off On Issues of Human Autonomy, Majority Rule and Divine Voice of Authority] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724090413/http://www.hartmaninstitute.com/uploads/Holidays/Elu-02062008_0957_45.pdf |date=2012-07-24 }}, p. 8</ref>

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Some Orthodox rationalists in Israel take a "restorationist"{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} approach, reaching back in time for tools to simplify Rabbinic Judaism and bring all Jews, regardless of status or stream of Judaism, closer to the observance of ''[[Halakha]]'', ''[[Mitzvah|mitzvot]]'', ''[[kashrut]]'', and Maimonides' [[Jewish principles of faith]]. [[Dor Daim]] and [[Dor Daim#Talmide ha-Rambam|Rambamists]] are two groups who reject mysticism as a "superstitious innovation" to an otherwise clear and succinct set of laws and rules. According to them, shame and disgrace are attached to failure to investigate matters of religious principle using the fullest powers of human reason and intellect. One cannot be considered wise or perceptive if one does not attempt to understand the origins and establish the correctness of one's beliefs.

=== Holocaust theology ===
{{main|Holocaust theology}}
Judaism traditionally holds that God is [[omnipotent]], [[omniscient]], and [[omnibenevolent]]. These attributes raise complex questions about the [[existence of evil]] in the world. A significant challenge for monotheistic faiths is reconciling the existence of positive divine characteristics with the reality of evil. Key questions include the relationship between good and bad and the interplay between God and the concept of a devil. This is known as the [[problem of evil]]. Various [[theodicies]] have been proposed across monotheistic religions to address this issue. The scale of suffering observed during events such as the [[Holocaust]] has led many to re-examine classical theological perspectives. As a result, there is a discussion surrounding Jewish philosophies related to faith in the aftermath of the Holocaust, which is addressed in the field of [[Holocaust theology]].

=== Reconstructionist theology ===
{{main|Reconstructionist Judaism}}
Perhaps the most controversial form of Jewish philosophy that developed in the early 20th century was the [[religious naturalism]] of Rabbi [[Mordecai Kaplan]], whose theology was a variant of [[John Dewey]]'s [[pragmatism|pragmatist]] philosophy. Kaplan’s naturalism combined nontheist metaphysics with religious terminology to construct a philosophy for those who had lost faith in traditional Judaism. In agreement with the classical, medieval Jewish thinkers, Kaplan affirmed that God is an impersonal being (if a "being" at all) and that all anthropomorphic descriptions of God are, at best, imperfect metaphors. Kaplan's theology went beyond this to claim that God is the sum of all natural processes that allow man to become self-fulfilled, writing that "to believe in God means to take for granted that it is man's destiny to rise above the brute and to eliminate all forms of violence and exploitation from human society."{{cn|date=February 2025}}

=== Process theology ===
A recent trend has been to reframe Jewish theology through the lens of [[process philosophy]]—more specifically, [[process theology]]. Process philosophy suggests that fundamental elements of the universe are occasions of experience. According to this notion, what individuals consider concrete "objects" are successions of ''occasions'' of experience. Occasions of experience can be collected into groupings; something complex, such as a human being, is thus a grouping of many smaller occasions of experience. In this view, everything in the universe is characterized by experience (not to be confused with consciousness); this system has no mind-body duality because the "mind" is seen as a very developed kind of experiencing entity.

Intrinsic to this worldview is the notion that prior experiences influence all experiences and will influence all future experiences. This process of influencing is never deterministic; an occasion of experience consists of comprehending other experiences and then reacting to them. This is the "process" in "process philosophy". Process philosophy gives God a special place in the universe of occasions of experience. God encompasses all the other occasions of experience but also transcends them; thus, process philosophy is a form of [[panentheism]].

The original ideas of process theology were developed by [[Charles Hartshorne]] (1897–2000) and influenced a number of [[Judaism|Jewish]] theologians, including [[United Kingdom|British]] philosopher Samuel Alexander (1859–1938), and [[Rabbis]] [[Max Kadushin]], [[Milton Steinberg]], Levi A. Olan, Harry Slominsky, and [[Bradley Shavit Artson]]. [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] has also been linked to this tradition.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moore|first=Donald J.|title=The Human and the Holy: The Spirituality of Abraham Joshua Heschel|year=1989|publisher=Fordham University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0823212361|pages=82–83|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdfdS5YwOHoC}}</ref>

=== Kabbalah and philosophy ===
Kabbalah continued to be central to [[Haredi Judaism]], which generally rejected philosophy; the [[Chabad]] strain of [[Hasidic Judaism]] showed a more positive attitude towards philosophy. Meanwhile, non-Orthodox Jewish thought in the latter 20th century saw resurgent interest in [[Kabbalah]]. In academic studies, [[Gershom Scholem]] began the critical investigation of Jewish mysticism, while in non-Orthodox [[Jewish denominations]], [[Jewish Renewal]] and [[Neo-Hasidism]] spiritualised worship. Many philosophers{{who|date=February 2025}} do not consider this a form of philosophy, as Kabbalah is a collection of esoteric methods of textual interpretation. Mysticism is generally understood as an alternative to philosophy, not a variant of philosophy.

Among the modern critics of Kabbalah was [[Yihhyah Qafahh]], who wrote a book entitled ''[[Milhamoth ha-Shem]]'' (Wars of the Name) against what he perceived as the false teachings of the [[Zohar]] and the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria. He is credited with spearheading the [[Dor Daim]]. [[Yeshayahu Leibowitz]] publicly shared the views expressed in Rabbi [[Yihhyah Qafahh]]'s book ''Milhhamoth ha-Shem'' and elaborated upon these views in his many writings.

=== Contemporary Jewish philosophy ===

==== Philosophers who are associated with Orthodox Judaism ====
{{main|Orthodox Jewish philosophy}}
* [[Eliezer Berkovits]]
* [[Monsieur Chouchani]]
* [[Eliyahu Dessler]]
* [[Israel Eldad]]
* [[Elimelech of Lizhensk]]
* [[David Hartman (rabbi)|David Hartman]]
* [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]]
* [[Abraham Isaac Kook]]
* [[Yeshayahu Leibowitz]]
* [[Menachem Mendel of Kotzk]]
* [[Nachman of Breslov]]
* [[Franz Rosenzweig]]
* [[Tamar Ross]]
* [[Daniel Rynhold]]
* [[Yehoshua Zimmerman]]
* [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]]
* [[Joseph Soloveitchik]]
* [[Michael Wyschogrod]]
* [[Chaim Volozhin]]
* [[Shneur Zalman of Liadi]]

==== Philosophers who are associated with Conservative Judaism ====
<!-- [[File:SelmaHeschelMarch.jpg|thumb|130px|right|[[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] marching with [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]]] -->
{{main|Conservative Judaism}}
* [[Bradley Shavit Artson]]
* [[Elliot N. Dorff]]
* [[Neil Gillman]]
* [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]]
* [[William E. Kaufman]]
* [[Max Kadushin]]
* [[Alan Mittleman]]
* [[David Novak]]
* [[Ira F. Stone]]

==== Philosophers who are associated with Reform and Progressive Judaism ====
{{main|Reform Judaism|Reconstructionist Judaism}}
* [[Rachel Adler]] (American rabbi, author, and [[Feminism|Feminist]] philosopher)
* [[Leo Baeck]] (leader in German [[Reform Judaism|Liberal Judaism]])
* [[Eugene Borowitz]] (leader in American [[Reform Judaism]])
* [[Emil Fackenheim]] (German-Canadian-Israeli philosopher)
* Avigdor Chaim Gold (German-Israeli philosopher)

==== Jewish philosophers whose philosophy is not necessarily focused on Jewish themes ====
In the 20th and 21st centuries, there have also been many philosophers who are Jewish or of Jewish descent and whose Jewish background might influence their approach to some degree but whose writing is not necessarily focused on issues specific to Judaism. These include:
* [[Theodor W. Adorno]]
* [[Joseph Agassi]], an Israeli philosopher of science who developed [[Karl Popper]]'s ideas<ref>As early as 1934 [[Karl Popper]] wrote of the search for truth as "one of the strongest motives for scientific discovery." Still, he describes in ''Objective Knowledge'' (1972) early concerns about the much-criticized notion of truth as correspondence. Then came the semantic theory of truth formulated by the logician Alfred Tarski and published in 1933. Popper writes of learning in 1935 of the consequences of Tarski's theory, to his intense joy. The theory met critical objections to truth as correspondence and thereby rehabilitated it. The theory also seemed, in Popper's eyes, to support metaphysical realism and the regulative idea of a search for truth. Popper coined the term critical rationalism to describe his philosophy. Contemporary Jewish philosophers who follow Popper's philosophy include [[Joseph Agassi]], [[Adi Ophir]] and [[Yehuda Elkana]].</ref>
* [[Hannah Arendt]]
* [[Raymond Aron]]
* [[Zygmunt Bauman]]
* [[Walter Benjamin]]
* [[Henri Bergson]]
* [[Isaiah Berlin]]
* [[Ernst Bloch]]
* [[Allan Bloom]]
* [[Harold Bloom]]
* [[Susan Bordo]]
* [[Judith Butler]]
* [[Noam Chomsky]], an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and political activist
* [[Hélène Cixous]]
* [[Arthur Danto]]
* [[Jacques Derrida]]
* [[Hubert Dreyfus]]
* [[Ronald Dworkin]], an American philosopher of law
* [[Yehuda Elkana]], an Israeli philosopher of science
* [[Bracha L. Ettinger]]
* [[Viktor Frankl]]
* [[Sigmund Freud]]
* [[Erich Fromm]]
* [[Tamar Gendler]]
* [[Emma Goldman]]
* [[Lewis Gordon]]
* [[Jack Halberstam]]
* [[Ágnes Heller]]
* [[Max Horkheimer]]
* [[Edmund Husserl]]
* [[Alberto Jori]], an Italian-Jewish philosopher
* [[Hans Jonas]]
* [[Melanie Klein]]
* [[Sarah Kofman]]
* [[Siegfried Kracauer]]
* [[Saul Kripke]], a metaphysician and modal logician
* [[Franz Leopold Neumann]]
* [[Emmanuel Levinas]]
* [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]]
* [[Bernard-Henri Lévy]]
* [[Benny Lévy]]
* [[Leo Löwenthal]]
* [[Rosa Luxemburg]]
* [[György Lukács]]
* [[Herbert Marcuse]]
* [[Karl Marx]]
* [[Thomas Nagel]], a Serbia-born Jewish philosopher
* [[Robert Nozick]]
* [[Martha Nussbaum]], an American moral and political philosopher
* [[Adi Ophir]], an Israeli philosopher of science and moral philosopher
* [[Friedrich Pollock]]
* [[Karl Popper]]
* [[Moishe Postone]]
* [[Hilary Putnam]], an American analytic philosopher
* [[Ayn Rand]], a Russian-American Jewish philosopher who focused upon Aristotle's reason
* [[Avital Ronell]]
* [[Murray Rothbard]]
* [[Michael J. Sandel]]
* [[Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick]], an American queer theorist
* [[Lev Shestov]]
* [[Judith N. Shklar]]
* [[Peter Singer]], a [[utilitarian]] philosopher
* [[Alan Soble]], writes in [[philosophy of sex]], American-born, Romanian-Russian ethnicity
* [[Susan Sontag]]
* [[Sandy Stone (artist)|Sandy Stone]] theorist, artist, and a founder of [[transgender studies]]
* [[Leo Strauss]]
* [[Alfred Tarski]], Polish logician
* [[Michael Walzer]]
* [[Immanuel Wallerstein]]
* [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]]
* [[Irvin D. Yalom]]