Delving into Israel's multifaceted society, editors Avi Sagi and Ohad Nachtomy, along with their ... more Delving into Israel's multifaceted society, editors Avi Sagi and Ohad Nachtomy, along with their distinguished contributors, explore the many ethnic and religious communities that comprise modern Israel and the ways in which they interact and often misunderstand each other. Detailing both the tensions between Israelis and Arab minorities, as well as issues involving recent immigrants and the different religious sects within the Jewish community at large, this collection of essays covers diverse subjects such as Holocaust education, language rights, military service, and the balancing of religious with secular systems of law. An essential read for anyone searching for a better understanding of the challenges being faced in contemporary Israel.
This chapter explores the philosophical justification for religious pluralism and provides a crit... more This chapter explores the philosophical justification for religious pluralism and provides a critique of religious exclusivism. The crucial challenge to religious exclusivism is what can be called ‘Hume's dilemma’. The source of Hume's dilemma is the existence of mutually incompatible religions; it conveys the problem evoked by interreligious pluralism. The chapter presents two central strategies for dealing with this problem. The first offers a modified version of validation in general and of religious justification in particular. The second offers a modified version of the concept of religious truth. These strategies make pluralism a position more defensible than exclusivism. The chapter then looks at the concept of religious loyalty, and assesses whether the endorsement of pluralism implies the breakdown of religious traditions in general and of Jewish tradition in particular. It argues that endorsing pluralism requires a religious revolution and while it exacts a heavy religious price, it is pluralism more than toleration that is compelling to contemporary Jews living in a modern democratic world.
Delving into Israel's multifaceted society, editors Avi Sagi and Ohad Nachtomy, along with their ... more Delving into Israel's multifaceted society, editors Avi Sagi and Ohad Nachtomy, along with their distinguished contributors, explore the many ethnic and religious communities that comprise modern Israel and the ways in which they interact and often misunderstand each other. Detailing both the tensions between Israelis and Arab minorities, as well as issues involving recent immigrants and the different religious sects within the Jewish community at large, this collection of essays covers diverse subjects such as Holocaust education, language rights, military service, and the balancing of religious with secular systems of law. An essential read for anyone searching for a better understanding of the challenges being faced in contemporary Israel.
This chapter explores the philosophical justification for religious pluralism and provides a crit... more This chapter explores the philosophical justification for religious pluralism and provides a critique of religious exclusivism. The crucial challenge to religious exclusivism is what can be called ‘Hume's dilemma’. The source of Hume's dilemma is the existence of mutually incompatible religions; it conveys the problem evoked by interreligious pluralism. The chapter presents two central strategies for dealing with this problem. The first offers a modified version of validation in general and of religious justification in particular. The second offers a modified version of the concept of religious truth. These strategies make pluralism a position more defensible than exclusivism. The chapter then looks at the concept of religious loyalty, and assesses whether the endorsement of pluralism implies the breakdown of religious traditions in general and of Jewish tradition in particular. It argues that endorsing pluralism requires a religious revolution and while it exacts a heavy religious price, it is pluralism more than toleration that is compelling to contemporary Jews living in a modern democratic world.
The sole ruler in the normative kingdom is the individual, the subject as moral agent. The best r... more The sole ruler in the normative kingdom is the individual, the subject as moral agent. The best realm for examining the standing of the individual is the practical-ethical field of action. It is through action that the individual can concretize his appearance as one who constitutes the suitable moral norm relying on his epistemic autonomy. Action, however, is also the field where the self can retreat when faced with the appearance of the other. In this chapter, I show that the difference between these two appearances of the self comes forth in the difference between two types of ethic: the ethic of justice and the ethic of compassion. Whereas the ethic of justice realizes the sovereign control of the moral subject, who constitutes the field relying on her normative considerations, the ethic of compassion epitomizes the subject’s readiness to retreat and renounce his active and sovereign standing in favor of what appears before his eyes—the suffering other.
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