Julius Guttmann

Julius Guttmann (born as Yitzchak Guttmann on April 15, 1880 in Hildesheim ; died on May 19, 1950 in Jerusalem ) was a German rabbi and religious philosopher . His book Philosophy of Judaism (1933) is a standard work on the history of Judaism .

Life

Julius Guttmann was the son of Rabbi Jakob Guttmann (1845–1919) and Beate Guttmann, nee. Simonson, (born 1858) from Copenhagen . His father was chief rabbi in Hildesheim from 1874 to 1892 . At that time Hildesheim still had a large Jewish community. The father also published tracts on philosophical subjects. In 1880 the family moved to Breslau .

Julius Guttmann attended the rabbi seminary in Breslau and the University of Breslau . He was a lecturer in Breslau from 1910 to 1919 and a lecturer at the Institute for the Science of Judaism (the seminar of the Jewish reform movement) in Berlin from 1919 to 1934. In 1934 he was appointed professor of Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . He remained on this professorship until his death.

The philosophy of Judaism

Guttmann is best known for his Philosophy of Judaism (Reinhardt-Verlag, 1933). Translations are available in Hebrew , Spanish , English , Japanese and other translations. The work has been described as “the last product of the Jewish-German ' science of Judaism '” (Leon Roth).

Guttmann's account leads (in the final chapter The Jewish Philosophy of Religion in Modern Times ) to Moritz Lazarus and Hermann Cohen , the latter of whom had a strong influence on Guttmann's own philosophy through his book Religion of Reason from the Sources of Judaism (1919). A later Hebrew edition also includes Franz Rosenzweig . Chiwi al-Balkhi , Saadia ben Joseph , Isaak Israeli , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Bachja ibn Pakuda , Jehuda ha-Levi , Abraham ibn Daud , Maimonides , Levi ben Gerson , Chasdaj Crescas , Moses Mendelssohn , play a major role in The Philosophy of Judaism . Spinoza , Salomon Formstecher , Samuel Hirsch , Nachman Krohaben , Salomon Ludwig Steinheim, and Lazarus, Cohen and Rosenzweig. Important Kabbalah thinkers , on the other hand, are excluded, which characterizes Guttmann's attitude to Jewish philosophy .

Teaching

Philosophy of religion

Guttmann advocates the thesis that philosophy is the philosophy of religion. He says: Jewish philosophy “is a philosophy of religion in the specific sense that is given by the peculiarity of the monotheistic religion of revelation, which opposes philosophy as a power of its own through the energy of its claim to truth and the depth of its spiritual content”
for Guttmann there is an autonomous theology in Jewish thought: the Mishne Torah of Maimonides . The heretical philosophical speculation about objects of religion, however, formed into a philosophy of religion. The “sense of the religious” alone cannot lead to the possession of religious truth. Guttmann remarks that this is not a truth of objective knowledge, but a personal inner certainty. However, this certainty is no less reliable. The religion should be seen as “a province of its own in mind”. The sense of the religious, the immediacy of feeling, has an "autonomous" reality character in religious life. Guttmann tied in with Edmund Husserl's phenomenology , with which he was able to describe "a priori elements and structures that are present as originally given in human consciousness". This enables him to analyze the process by which generations of Jewish philosophers interpret the Jewish religion as something given and sometimes try to justify it. Guttmann was able to give a rationalistic explanation of the inwardness of religious consciousness because it was not about religious ideas as such. Rather, it was about the philosophical expression and the philosophical formulation of the fundamental principles of religion.

historiography

Guttmann attributes an important role to Jewish philosophy and its historiography and advocates a historical-chronological division of the Jewish history of philosophy according to philosophical schools. He subdivides Jewish philosophy according to historical philosophical schools, from Aristotle to Neoplatonism to existentialism in a linear historical sequence. The reason for this is the "diaspora character of the Jewish community". He makes a division according to currents and thinks that there will always be a connection to the tradition of Jewish philosophy. The modern authors also carry on the streams of thought of the philosophical tradition, so that Jewish philosophy does not lose its roots in the past. Guttmann is aware that the Jewish existence today (1933) has changed significantly and that this circumstance poses completely new problems for Jewish philosophy. He thinks "that the philosophy of our generation is what it used to be". In view of the ambiguous situation, however, it is impossible to foresee which path she will take. He compares the natural sciences with the history of philosophy and states that there has been progress and continuous change in the natural sciences. In contrast, the history of philosophy is fraught with crises and controversies, where the new ideas are constantly confronted with the thinking of times past. Even within modern philosophy, the effects of the most important teachings of past generations are taken up, which is why even the “so-called revolutionaries of philosophy” consciously or unconsciously continue the ideas of the philosophical tradition. These old thoughts would now be better understood and new conclusions could be drawn. Regardless of all arguments, "philosophy would maintain its own continuity". As an example, Guttman cites the development of Jewish philosophy, "which maintains its link with the past, despite the gulf that separates the Middle Ages from the modern". Guttmann notes that these are the same problems that are addressed in both the Middle Ages and modern times. Modern Jewish philosophy learned from the solutions of great philosophers such as Maimonides or Juda Ha-Levi. This connection with past philosophers can even be seen in modern Jewish philosophy, regardless of all differences.

Works

• Kant's concept of objective knowledge. 1911.
• The Jews and Economic Life. 1913 (review of Sombart's work).
• Religion and Science in Medieval and Modern Thought. 1922.
• Co-editor of the “Jubilee Edition” of Moses Mendelssohn's works, 1928–1938.
• The philosophy of Judaism. 1933 ( history of philosophy in individual representations ).
  • The philosophy of Judaism. With an assessment by Esther Seidel and a biographical introduction by Fritz Bamberger, Jüdische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 2000.

literature

• Leon Roth: Is there a Jewish Philosophy? Rethinking Fundamentals. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, London, 1962, again 1999
• RJ Zwi Werblowsky: Philosophies of Judaism. The History of Jewish Philosophy from Biblical Times to Franz Rosenzweig. New York, 1964
• Fritz Bamberger : Julius Guttmann, philosopher of Judaism, in Robert Weltsch Hg .: German Judaism, rise and crisis. Design, ideas, works. Fourteen monographs. Publication by the Leo Baeck Institute . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt , Stuttgart 1963, pp. 85–119; with an erg. by Esther Seidel again in Julius Guttmann: Die Philosophie des Judentums , Jüdische Verlagsanstalt, Berlin 2000, pp. 7–40
  • From English: JG, philosopher of Judaism. London 1960

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Werblowsky 1964
2. ^ Andreas B. Kilcher, On the concept of Jewish philosophy. In: Kilcher, Andreas B. / Fraisse, Otfried (ed.): Metzler Lexicon of Jewish Philosophers. Stuttgart / Weimar 2003, introduction, p. XI.
3. ↑ Julius Guttmann: The Philosophy of Judaism. Berlin 1933, p. 9.
4. ↑ Thomas Meyer: From the end of emancipation - Jewish philosophy and theology after 1933. Göttingen 2008, p. 78.
5. ↑ Cf. Esther Seidel: Julius Guttmanns Philosophie des Judentums - a position determination. In: Julius Guttmann: The Philosophy of Judaism. Berlin 2000, p. 408
6. ↑ See Esther Seidel: Ibid., P. 411.

Web links

• Literature by and about Julius Guttmann in the catalog of the German National Library