Quest for Life: A Study in Aharon David Gordon's Philosophy of Man in Nature

by Yossi Turner

Overview

A.D. Gordon was one of the most interesting and original Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Quest for Life presents Gordon’s philosophy, which was developed in Hebrew at the beginning of the twentieth century, to the English reading public. It discusses the role played by the early Land of Israel pioneering labor community in the development of his thought, and offers a new understanding of its major themes, including: the relation of humanity to nature, human freedom, ethnicity, religion, and ethics. In addition, the book discusses the repercussions of Gordon’s thought with respect to contemporary civilization while suggesting its implicit ‘quest for life’ as the basis for a re-evaluation of such topics as the meaning of human life, Jewish peoplehood and the idea of a Jewish homeland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644693124
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Series:	Emunot: Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah
Pages:	174
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Yossi Turner is Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He has published extensively on philosophies of Jewish existence, Jewish religious philosophy, and Jewish social thought. At present he is also involved in developing an original philosophy designed to explicate various problems facing contemporary Jewish life and humanity.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Part One: Introduction: Historical and Biographical Background

1. Introduction
2. A Quest for Life: Historical and Biographical Background

Part Two: Philosophy and Life—Nature, Society, and the Question of Ecological Responsibility

3. Gordon’s Philosophy as a Response to Kant, Nietzsche, and Marx
4. The Foundations of A. D. Gordon’s Philosophy of Man in Nature: Life, Self, and Experience
5. Critique of Society and Civilization
6. Religion, Family, and the Ethic of Ecological Responsibility

Part Three: Life and Praxis

7. The National “Self” in Aḥad Ha’am, Brenner, and Gordon
8. Self-Realization as Self-Education
9. Freedom and Equality in Gordon’s Ideas on the Founding of a Workers’ Settlement

Part Four: National Individuality, Social Justice, and the Prospects of a Universal Humanity

10. Zionism and Diaspora Jewry
11. Jews and Arabs
12. National Individuality as a Condition of Universal Humanity

Part Five: Conclusion

13. A Critical Summary

Postscript: Contemporary Repercussions

14. The Malaise of Modernity: Durkheim and Taylor Versus Dewey

Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A.D. Gordon was … a visionary philosopher and prophet committed to Zionism, to ecological and social responsibility, to the renewal of Jewish life and to the creation of a humanity anchored in universalistic particularism. Quest for Life is a major building-block in the study of the various philosophical, social, and educational strata of Gordon’s teachings. … Turner demonstrates his claim that Gordon’s philosophy should be seen as a cornerstone of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Jewish thought through a brilliant postscript, in which he calls for the adoption of Gordonian perspectives in order to confront the challenges facing human and Jewish existence in the contemporary period.”

—Rabbi Prof. Yehoyada Amir, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem

“This is an exemplary book on a fascinating and important subject. It reframes the philosophy of an almost mythical figure who, in his life and work, symbolized what was best in the period of Zionist realization in the land of Israel prior to the establishment of the Jewish state. Through his deep and insightful analyses of the manner in which Gordon treated the problems of Jewish and human existence, in his own time, Turner uncovers Gordon’s fundamental intuition that flies in the face of contemporary civilization: that as a result of his unique cognitive abilities, the human being has turned his back on the power of life that joins human culture to the natural cosmos, in order to exploit its resources for increasingly selfish purposes. In this context, Quest for Life suggests a return to the ethos of natural creation and social solidarity that characterized Gordon’s thought as a basis for working through the problems confronting humanity in the present.” —Eliezer Schweid, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

“Little attention has been devoted to the study of A.D. Gordon’s philosophy. Most of it has focused on his ties to Kabbalah and Hasidism or offered a descriptive presentation of his views. Turner’s work marks a breakthrough in the research on Gordon’s philosophy as it portrays him as a systematic, profound, and inspired thinker who stands at the very heart of philosophical discourse. In a deep analysis, Turner exposes the core of Gordon’s thought—the quest for life. The various lines of discussion in this book explicate Gordon’s philosophy as a reflection on the ongoing movement of life while demonstrating this movement’s broad meanings and implications in many realms—ethics, the perception of the individual, of society, and of religion—while comparing it to the thought of Gordon’s contemporaries and to current approaches. This is an impressive work which returns to center stage a thinker whose work transcends his time and place.” —Avi Sagi, Department of Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University; Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem

“A.D. Gordon (1856-1922), the spiritual leader of Labor Zionism, is made available for English readers in this concise, accessible, and penetrating study. Turner presents A.D. Gordon as an original philosopher whose vision of man in nature resists the binary dichotomies of secularity and religion, nature and society, universal humanity and Jewish particularity, offering a unique middle path. Engaging Kant, Marx, Hegel, and Nietzsche, Gordon’s secular religiosity is most relevant to Jewish environmentalism, social thought, and education in Israel and in the Diaspora.” —Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Irving and Miriam Lowe Professor of Modern Judaism, Arizona State University