In this Book

summary
The Open Past challenges a view of time that has dominated philosophical thought for the past two centuries. In that view, time originates from a relationship to the future, and the past can be only a fictitious beginning, the necessary phantom of a starting point, a chronological period of "before." This view of the past has permeated the study of the Talmud as well, resulting in the application of modern philosophical categories such as the "thinking subject," subjectivity, and temporality to the thinking displayed in the texts of the Talmud. The book seeks to reclaim the originary power and authority the past exerts in the Talmud. Central to the task of reclaiming a radical role for the past are medieval notions of the virtual and their contrasting modern appropriations, the thinking subject among them. These serve as both a bridging point and a demarcation between the practices of thinking and remembering displayed in the conversations held by the characters in the Talmud by contrast to other rhetorical or philosophical schools and disciplines of thought.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. 1-6
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface
  2. pp. ix-xi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-17
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part I. Stakes
  2. pp. 19-32
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. What Happens to Thinking?
  2. pp. 21-33
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Ego Cogito, Ego Meminí: I Think, Therefore I Remember
  2. pp. 34-43
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Through Talmud Criticism to the Talmud as Thought and Memory
  2. pp. 44-53
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part II. Who Speaks?
  2. pp. 55-68
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preamble: The Virtual Author
  2. pp. 57-58
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Thought and Memory in the Talmud: The Ambiguous Status of “The Author”—and Beyond
  2. pp. 59-77
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Human Existence in the Talmud: Thinking as Multiplicity and Heterogeneity
  2. pp. 78-104
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Sense in the Making: Hermeneutical Practices of the Babylonian Talmud
  2. pp. 105-128
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part III. Who Thinks?
  2. pp. 129-142
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preamble: The Virtual Subject
  2. pp. 131-133
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. Who Thinks in the Talmud?
  2. pp. 134-157
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. The Hand of Augustine: Thought, Memory, and Performative Existence in the Talmud
  2. pp. 158-178
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part IV. Who Remembers?
  2. pp. 179-192
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preamble: The Virtual
  2. pp. 181-184
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9. What Is the Sophist? Who Is the Rabbi?: The Virtual of Thinking
  2. pp. 185-211
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 10. The Talmud as Film
  2. pp. 212-246
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Conclusion
  2. pp. 247-256
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 307-356
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 357-368
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. 369-370
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 371-379
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.