Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism by Aaron W. Hughes (review)

In Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism, Aaron Hughes offers a comprehensive, historically nuanced examination of “Jewish philosophy” that challenges pervasive, long-held assumptions regarding the nature of the field. Hughes argues for a less essentialist approach to the subject that seeks to decouple identity politics from Jewish thought, thereby creating the potential for real bridge-building by placing the subject previously identified as “Jewish” firmly within the larger context of (academic) philosophy as a whole. As an analogy, Hughes cites the disciplines of “mathematics, physics, [and] sociology” and notes that, “if we are not comfortable with coupling particularist adjectives and universally recognized disciplines, why do we insist on thinking that it is okay to refer to something as ‘Jewish philosophy’” (1).

The book is arranged topically, not historically, and in presenting and briefly examining the ideas of canonical Jewish thinkers, Hughes calls into question the idea of “Jewish philosophy” as a monolithic, static entity that is wedded to a particular set of normative standards. By recognizing and emphasizing the genuine pluralism inherent in the Jewish experience through the ages, and querying the understanding of Judaism as an unchanging constant, Hughes is able to prepare us for the possibility that Jewish philosophy is not a natural kind, or even an academic discipline.

Hughes examines the construction and maintenance of identity within Judaism and Jewish thought. The specter of essentialism looms, and Hughes addresses the issue by discussing the process of canonization in “Jewish philosophy,” specifically, the general criteria for inclusion and acceptability. In this regard Hughes evidences the role that identity politics plays, sometimes retroactively in the cases of Shlomo ibn Gabirol and Judah Abravanel, in establishing one’s place within the canon. Hughes uses these specific examples, and asserts that they “test the viability of something constructed” on account of the fact that “their work was excluded from the canon as long as they were believed to be either non-Jews . . . or apostates . . . but when . . . found to be ‘ethnically’ and ‘religiously’ Jewish, their thinking was subsumed within the canon, even though their major works contained nothing one would consider ‘Jewish’” (64). However, the very same criteria do not seem to apply in the case of Edmund Husserl. Hughes, who describes Husserl as “certainly . . . a Jew,” notes that while Husserl did convert to Christianity, he ultimately lost his university position as a consequence of his perceived Jewishness (61). Whether his conversion was under duress, of necessity, or a legitimate endeavor seems to matter less than the fact that, “because he was not interested in reading philosophy and Jewish sources together,” Husserl is omitted from the canon (61). The inconsistent application of criteria in these examples highlights the need for the very flexibility that Hughes claims is lacking in the definition of Judaism itself and the identity of the Jew. He argues for a plurality of definitions and identities as a means of eliminating the essentialism that has given rise to the artifice “Jewish philosophy.”

Rethinking Jewish Philosophy: Beyond Particularism and Universalism is a clearly written, accessible text for both the student and her teacher. Through careful, though brief, analyses and alternative readings of classic works of Maimonides, Mendelssohn, Rosenzweig, Scholem, Levinas, and others, Hughes makes the case that “there is something the matter with Jewish philosophy . . . precisely because it reifies and protects what it should be in the habit of querying and interrogating” (125). Where “Jewish philosophy” is seemingly focused on the maintenance and resurrection of an “authentic Jewishness,” without reference to spatio-temporal nuance, Hughes offers a dynamic alternative that explores the forces of historicism and identity construction, and illuminates the consequences they have on the creation of “Jewish philosophy.”