Religious Studies 3A03 / Philosophy 3J03 (Fall 2004): MODERN JEWISH THOUGHT

FINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT

Topic Proposal due November 29.  Topic Approval to be obtained by December 1.  Papers due December 8.

Write a 5-7-page paper on a topic of your choosing, but including some material introduced in the second half of the course (readings by Rosenzweig, Levinas). As for the first paper, please submit with your paper an outline that serves as a guide to what you do and in what order.

You must get prior approval of your topic from me! Plan to communicate with me soon about your topic ideas. A good first step is to e-mail me 1-2 paragraphs by way of a proposal:  Your proposal should state which texts you will be focusing on and what question(s) or idea(s) you will be examining.   I should receive your proposal no later than Monday, November 29, so that I can approve your topic by Wednesday, December 1.  We can then take that as a basis for elaborating your topic and how you are going to go about preparing the paper.

Below is a partial, preliminary list of suggestions for topics. Please note that these are not paper topics, only suggestions for arriving at one. Your paper topic must be determined in consultation with me!

As with the midterm paper, the minimal requirement for an acceptable paper (topic) is that it combine textual analysis—i.e., a presentation of the views of one or two philosophers—with critical evaluation based on that presentation. Like your midterm papers, your final paper should pursue a question or a set of questions with respect to the text(s) you have chosen. (As before, please consult my Tips for Writing an Effective Paper for guidance and work with a writing consultant if that is something I have suggested to you in the past.)

• Rosenzweig’s theory of Judaism
• Rosenzweig and Cohen as theorists of Judaism
• Rosenzweig's theory of Judaism in conjunction with his theory of (Jewish) education ("Of Bildung there is no End") 
• Rosenzweig on teaching ("Of Bildung there is no End") and Buber on dialogue/encounter
• Cohen and Rosenzweig on Jewish historical and political existence in a non-Jewish world (or on Jewish vs. Christian historical-political existence)
• Cohen’s concept of “correlation” and Rosenzweig’s critique of the "philosophy of the All"
• Buber on the twofold world of I/It and I/Thou and Rosenzweig's "new thinking"
• Levinas and Buber (might be of special interest to those who have had some Levinas before)

additional topic suggestions (posted November 24):

• immanence vs. transcendence of God (Rosenzweig/Cohen, or Rosenzweig/Buber)
• the "messianic" in Cohen and Rosenzweig
• Judaism and particularity/universality in Cohen and Rosenzweig
• Cohen on the concept of Judaism out of its "sources"; Rosenzweig on the Jewish human being in relation to Jewish "literature" (in "Bildung" essay)
• time or temporality in Rosenzweig (with or without Buber or Levinas)
• temporality and ethics in Levinas
• Levinas's critique of totality in light of Rosenzweig's "new thinking"

posted November 17, 2004
updated November 24, 2004