The American neo-pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty dismisses the public applicability of Jewish moral reasoning, because it is based on the will of God through divine revelation. As a self-described secular philosopher, it comes as no surprise that Rorty does not find public applicability within a divinely-ordered Jewish ethic. Rorty also rejects the French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinass ethics, which is based upon the notion of infinite responsibility to the Face of the Other. In Rortys judgment, Levinass ethics is gawky, awkward, and unenlightening. From a Rortyan perspective, it seems that Jewish ethics simply cant win: either it is either too dependent on the will of God or over-emphasizes the human Other. This book responds to Rortys criticisms of Jewish ethics in three different ways: first, demonstrating agreements between Rorty and Jewish thinkers; second, offering reflective responses to Rortys critiques of Judaism on the questions of Messianism, prophecy, and the relationship between politics and theology; third, taking on Rortys seemingly unfair judgment that Levinass ethics is gawky, awkward, and unenlightening. While Rorty does not engage the prophetic tradition of Jewish thought in his essay, Glorious Hopes, Failed Prophecies, he dismisses the possibility for prophetic reasoning because of its other-worldliness and its emphasis on predicting the future. Rorty fails to attend to and recognize the complexity of prophetic reasoning, and this book presents the complexity of the prophetic within Judaism. Toward these ends and more, Brad Elliott Stone and Jacob L. Goodson offer this book to scholars who contribute to the Jewish academy, those within American Philosophy, and those who think Richard Rortys voice ought to remain in conversations about religion and conversations among the religious.

Jacob L. Goodson is associate professor of philosophy at Southwestern College.

Brad Elliott Stone is professor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University.

Introduction by Jacob L: Goodson

Part 1: Social Hope and Solidarity: Bringing Jewish Philosophy and Rortys Neo-pragmatism Together

Chapter 1: Rorty, my Atheist Rabbi? Between Irony and Social Hope by Akiba Lerner

Chapter 2: Prudence in the Twenty-first Century: Moving Beyond the Morality-Prudence Distinction with Maimonides and Rorty by Jacob L: Goodson

Chapter 3: Charlottesville Pragmatism: Richard Rortys Neo-pragmatism and Peter Ochss Rabbinic Pragmatism by Gary Slater

Part 2: Politics and Prophecy: Finding Common Ground in Jewish Theology and Rortys Secular Liberalism

Chapter 4: The Grounds of Prophecy: Richard Rorty and the Hermeneutics of History by Samuel Hayim Brody

Chapter 5: Messianism as a Conversation Stopper? Ironic Utopianism and Pragmatist Jewish Politics by Elliot Ratzman

Chapter 6: How to Read Rorty as a Political Theologian: And Why We Should by Stephen Minister

Part 3: Conversation and Cruelty: Putting Rortys Philosophy in Conversation with Emmuel Levinass Jewish Ethics

Chapter 7: All in the Details: Rorty and Levinas on Language, Cruelty, and Togetherness by Megan Craig

Chapter 8: Two Faces of Heteronomy: Autonomy and Cruelty in Rorty and Levinas by Brad Elliott Stone

Chapter 9: A Faith without Triumph: Levinas, Rorty, and Prophetic Pragmatism by J: Aaron Simmons

Chapter 10: Rabbinic Reasoning and a Rortyan Ethic: Narrative, Pragmatism, and Solidarity by Hannah Hashkes

Conclusion: Rorty and Heideggers Nazism by Brad Elliott Stone