When Wittgenstein Meets Maimonides

Analytical Philosophy and its Potential Contribution to the Study of Jewish Thought (and vice versa)

Abstract

Jewish thought can be seen as a collection of encounters between Jewish texts, thought, rituals, and the external culture. The clearest and most well-known example of such an “encounter” is Jewish thought in the Middle Ages, with an emphasis on that of Maimonides and his successors, which was largely shaped by their encounters with Greek philosophy. Similarly, many modern thinkers, such as Herman Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and even Rabbi Kook and Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, developed and shaped their philosophy following encounters with contemporary European philosophy – Neo-Kantian philosophy and German idealism. In this article, I will adopt this perspective, viewing Jewish thought as a “sequence of encounters” and pointing out a new and fascinating encounter that is currently taking place: the encounter between Jewish thought and law and analytical philosophy. It will begin with a brief presentation and overview of analytical philosophy and will then turn to examine and discuss the implications of the encounter that has taken place in recent decades between analytical philosophy and modern Jewish thought for the worlds of research and philosophy.