Judaism and Modern Western Philosophy: Collected Writings of Steven S. Schwarzschild

What are the implications of Franz Rosenzweig's quasi-racialist commonalities with Heidegger's thought? Was Kant a 'Jewish thinker'? Does Spinoza's philosophy lend support to totalitarianism?  Was Marx's philosophy more shaped by Jewish cultural tradition than is typically assumed? Was there a strong challenge to Strauss's reading of Maimonides already in the 1940s?

This volume contains a collection of Steven S. Schwarzschild's (1924-1989) most important unpublished works, the majority of which were found in his literary remains. The essays present provocative perspectives on influential philosophical figures such as Maimonides, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Rosenzweig, Heidegger, and Leo Strauss. As one of the most original twentieth-century thinkers in the field of Jewish philosophy, Schwarzschild's analysis provides readers with new ways of understanding modern Western philosophy, Jewish religious tradition, and the relation between them.

Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Heidegger The German and the Jewish Turns to Ethnicism [1988].- Alienation Judaism as the Philosophical Issue between Hegel and Kant [1986].- Spinoza on State and Religion A Jewish Analysis [1956].- The Jewish Kant [1986].- The Jew Marx [1973].- Karl Marx’s Jewish Theory Of Usury [1978].- On Maimonides’ Philosophy of Halacha [1948].

George Y. Kohler teaches at the Department of Jewish Philosophy and is head of the Joseph Carlebach Institut at Bar Ilan University. His research focuses on German Jewish theology in the 19th century and on Jewish-Christian debates on religion during that time. He is the author of Reading Maimonides' Philosophy in 19th Century Germany (Springer, 2021) and he is the editor of a volume of Steven Schwarzschild’s essays on Hermann Cohen.

Daniel H. Weiss is Polonsky-Coexist Professor of Jewish Studies and Philosophy of Religion, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He is the author of Paradox and the Prophets: Hermann Cohen and the Indirect Communication of Religion (2012) and Modern Jewish Philosophy and the Politics of Divine Violence (2023), among other publications, and co-editor of multiple books, including Scripture and Violence (2020) and Tsimtsum and Modernity (2021). Actively involved in the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, he is a recent recipient of a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers.