On Justice: An Essay in Jewish Philosophy; with a New Introduction / Edition 2

by Lenn E. Goodman

Overview

What is fair? How do rights join hands with generosity? How can punishment be justified? Is there recompense for human suffering? What sense can we make of immortality, or of the idea of a messianic age? In On Justice Lenn Goodman offers the first general theory of justice for more than a century to tap the riches of the Jewish tradition-biblical, rabbinic, and philosophical-and bring its texts into dialogue with the classic works of Western ethics and political philosophy. Against the backdrop of conversation he opens up-with Saadiah, Halevi, Maimonides, and Spinoza, with Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Rawls-Goodman develops a fresh, ontological approach to the core issues of ethics, politics, and the human condition. The original ideas of On Justice will engage both Jewish and non-Jewish philosophers and students of society and ethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904113706
Publisher:	The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in association with Liverpool University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2008
Series:	Littman Library of Jewish Civilization
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Lenn E. Goodman is Professor of Philosophy and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. A graduate of Harvard and a former Marshall Scholar, Goodman earned his doctorate at Oxford and is a past winner of the Baumgardt Prize of the American Philosophical Association and the Gratz Centennial Prize, for his book 'God of Abraham'. He has lectured throughout the United States and in Europe, Australia, and Israel. Among his other books are 'Judaism, Human Rights and Human Values', 'Avicenna', 'Islamic Humanism', and 'Jewish and Islamic Philosophy: Crosspollinations in the Classic Age'.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Paperback Edition vii

1 Toward a Theory of Justice 1

The Basis of Exchange 2

Desert and Consent 9

An Objective Theory of Deserts 23

2 Punishment 43

The Logic of Punishment 44

Retribution and Deserts 59

Punishment versus Vengance 69

3 Recompense 75

Deontological and Teleological Ethics 76

Extrinsic Rewards 92

Intrinsic Rewards 100

4 Do Beings Receive What They Deserve? 119

Moral, Metaphysical, and Natural Justice 120

The Working Out of Natural Justice 133

Biblical Prophecy and Natural Justice 140

5 The Messianic Age 156

Variations on a Theme 156

Demythologizing the Messiah 165

Accessible Messianism 180

6 Whereafter? 195

Scripture and Immortality 196

What Are We to Expect? 209

Immortality within the World 221

Notes 235

Index of Passages 263

General Index 271