In the Beginning Is Philosophy: On Desire and the Good

Description

Philosophy, when understood to embody the values that are fundamental to modernity, is biblical in origin, both historically and ontologically. Central to this idea is the question famously posed by Tertullian: What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? The answer – as based on a comprehensive and systematic discussion of the key texts and ideas of Spinoza, Vico, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche – is that we can overcome the conventional opposition between reason and faith, between philosophy and theology, and between the secular and the religious only if we learn to see that, as Spinoza shows us, both philosophy (reason) and theology (faith) are based on caritas: love – on the divine command to do unto others what you want others to do unto you. Provided throughout is a commentary on how fundamentally different philosophy is in the Greek and in the biblical traditions (in Athens and in Jerusalem). Whereas Socrates argues that (human) desire and the (divine) good are contradictory opposites, Spinoza shows that it is human desire that truly constitutes the divine good of all. This book would be indispensable to courses (both undergraduate and graduate) in philosophy, religious studies, and the history of ideas – in interdisciplinary courses in the humanities, generally – that focus on the values that are central, both historically and ontologically, to modernity. Cover Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: In Beginning with Adam and Eve as the Story of Two Beginnings—in Athens and Jerusalem 2. History: What Do I Believe? In Beginning with History as Faith in the Absolute 3. Ontology: What Do I Think? In Beginning with God as Necessary Existence Introduction: The Ironies Multiply Testing the Spirits with Nietzsche The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra On the Genealogy of Morals Conclusion: The Ironic Truth of Modernity 4. Ethics: What Do I Love? In Beginning with the Neighbor as My Creation Introduction Spinoza Aristotle Conclusion 5. Hermeneutics: What Do I Interpret? In Beginning with the Other as the Truth of Myself Introduction Spinoza Vico Conclusion 6. Politics: What Do I Will? In Beginning with Relationship as the Freedom and Equality of All Introduction Rousseau Spinoza Conclusion 7. Conclusion: In Ending with Philosophy as Beginning with the Good of Desire Notes References Index