Essay on Jewish Philosophers on Reason and Revelation

Jewish Philosophers on Reason and Revelation Footnotes are Misssing ABSTRACT: Are reason and revelation different sources of truth? Do they contradict or complement each other? The present essay tries to give an answer to these ancient questions from a Jewish pluralistic point of view. I describe the essential views of the most important representatives of the two main schools of Jewish thought: the rationalists Maimonides, Moses Mendelssohn, and Hermann Cohen, and the antirationalists Judah Halevi and Solomon Levi Steinheim. I show that even the antirationalists use the tools of rationalism, by which Talmudic-rabbinic thought is characterized, in an attempt to show that they are not irrationalists. The comparison of this attitude†¦show more content†¦Hegel, though agreeing with the necessity of both approaches, emphasizes the decisive role of philosophy, because according to him the absolute spirit reaches its highest level only in the pure form of thought, while religion is the presentation of spirit as mere feeling. As opposed to these tw o thinkers, who hold that religion and philosophy are two independently legitimate ways of recognizing truth, there are other philosophers (such as Thomas Aquinas), who are of the opinion that philosophy can only prove certain principles while other principles can only be proven by revelation. And finally there are those thinkers who espouse a complete dichotomy between the theological and philosophical approches. Theologians like Karl Barth, Schleiermacher and others speak about the priority of belief, while philosophers like Kant and others speek about that of reason.(1) Our main question is if reason is capable of making decisive statements in the mundus sensibilis ac intelligibilis. Perhaps our faculty of reason can only be used in the realm of the mundus sensibilis, as Kant holds, and as a result the metaphysical world is left to our beliefs.(2) Or may be, we should leave this Kantian notion after Feuerbach and Nietzsche and accept Wittgensteins advice to keep silent about matters which we cannot comprehend? The Rationalistic School In order to attempt at giving an answer to the aforementioned questions, I now turn to theShow MoreRelatedThe Age Of Reason By Judaism1449 Words   |  6 PagesDuring the â€Å"Age of Reason†, Judaism was forced to re-evaluate its core values in response to acculturation and assimilation. 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