Jewish Philosophy — From Philo to Levinas
Jewish philosophy spans three millennia — from the allegories of Philo of Alexandria to the existentialism of Levinas — always in dialogue between the particular Jewish tradition and universal philosophical thought.
Jewish philosophy is the sustained engagement between Jewish theology, law, and mysticism on one side and the great philosophical traditions of Greece, Aristotle, Neoplatonism, medieval Islamic thought, German Idealism, and phenomenology on the other. Major figures include: Philo of Alexandria (1st century — allegorical interpretation of Torah using Platonic thought); Saadia Gaon (9th century — first systematic Jewish philosophy, rationalist defense of revelation); Maimonides (12th century — the greatest synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Jewish law/theology, Guide for the Perplexed); Nachmanides (13th century — Kabbalistic alternative to Maimonides' rationalism); Baruch Spinoza (17th century — broke with tradition, father of biblical criticism and secular political philosophy); Moses Mendelssohn (18th century — father of the Jewish Enlightenment, Jerusalem); Hermann Cohen (19th-20th century — Neo-Kantian Judaism); Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber (20th century — existentialist Jewish philosophy); Emmanuel Levinas (20th century — Talmudic phenomenology).
The face of the other is the beginning of all ethics.
Philosopher Martha Nussbaum's assessment that Jewish philosophy — particularly the Talmudic tradition and its modern inheritors — has made distinctive and irreplaceable contributions to moral philosophy through its emphasis on particular relationships, communal obligations, and the ethics of memory is supported by the growing influence of Levinasian ethics across multiple disciplines.
Totality and Infinity