A Jewish Philosophy of Man

A Lecture Series by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

Lecture 2: Methodology for a Jewish Religious Anthropology, from Metaphysical to Practical

Delivered November 20, 1958

Summary by Mark Smilowitz: The unique Jewish viewpoint should be placed in the context of Occidental (Western) thought and religion. However, we must avoid the danger of applying the categories and the question-set of the scientific world view, which is fundamentally pragmatic and utilitarian, to the paradoxical religious experience. We are not interested in a psychology of religion or anthropology of religion, but in a religious psychology and religious anthropology. That is to say, we don’t want to know what psychology or anthropology have to say about religion, but what religion has to say about psychology and anthropology. The task of formulating a Jewish anthropology is further hindered by the fact that Judaism, unfortunately, never formulated an original philosophy, but has been mostly apologetic, due to the shyness of our leaders about publicly expressing details about our most intimate relationship with God. Instead, Jews express religiosity through laws that correlate to that inner experience. The Halakhah holds an untold story about the Jewish religious experience that is difficult to unravel, but that is the task of Jewish anthropology. Like science, Jewish anthropology operates with a system of dynamic, a priori postulates, but while scientific postulates are inductive, relying on experimentation and observation, Judaism’s postulates are deductive, like mathematics. Judaism therefore provides a metaphysic of man, certain presupposed axioms about the nature of Man, although it remains open to adjusting some of its postulates in the face of newly encountered religious realities. It also allows multiple axioms about Man that contradict one another. On the other hand, Judaism also felt the need to transpose this metaphysic into a practical, functional, living creed through the Halakhah. It translates speculative metaphysics into concrete action by way of man’s emotional life.

00:01:18          Placing Jewish religious philosophy in the context of Western thought

00:03:15          First problem: error of describing religion in scientific terms

00:29:19          Second problem: Jewish shyness about expressing the private religious experience

00:58:05          Comparing Judaism’s a priori postulate system with that of science

01:04:04          Translating the Jewish metaphysic of man into concrete action through Halakhah

01:07:25          The role of creativity and metaphysical postulation in science

01:17:19          Judaism’s attention to man’s emotional life, and the logic and duties of the heart

01:38:45          Audience questions and responses, and reading assignment for next lecture

For Further Study: On the error of applying scientific categories to religion, see The Halakhic Mind regarding “epistemological pluralism” (1–36) and “the genetic fallacy” (86–88). The a priori nature of Halakhah as similar to mathematics is a major theme of early sections of Halakhic Man. The Rav elaborates on Halakhah as holding the story of the Jewish person’s inner, subjective religious experience in The Halakhic Mind (85, 100–102), as well as in Lecture 4 of this series.

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