Judaism, Science, and Moral Responsibility

Yitzhak Berger · David Shatz

nov 2005 · Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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Do human beings have free will? Are they genuinely responsible for their actions? These questions have persisted all through the history of philosophy, but in the 21st century they have become defined more sharply and clearly than ever. Indeed, a vivid and mighty tension underlies today's intellectual struggles over free will. On the one hand, the rapid advances of several empirical disciplines, notably neuropsychology and genetics, threaten our instinctive affirmation that free will and moral responsibility exist. On the other hand, the depth and force of our instincts-our powerful intuition that there is free will, that there is moral responsibility-present, for most people, an almost impenetrable barrier against the sweeping denial of free will suggested by empirical research. The papers in this volume address this tension from a dual vantage point. While drawing heavily upon traditional Jewish texts and teachings, they also offer a blend of scientific, philosophical, psychological, and social insights into this most mystifying of topics. In addition, they illuminate the concept of repentance, a transformation of character that ranks in much of Jewish literature as the highest expression of free will.

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Yitzhak Berger is Assistant Professor of Bible at Hunter College of the City University of New York. David Shatz, is Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University, Adjunct Professor of Religion at Columbia, and editor of The Torah u-Madda Journal, a journal devoted to the interaction between Judaism and general culture. He has published ten books and approximately fifty articles and reviews, dealing with both general and Jewish philosophy. His most recent books are Philosophy and Faith, Questions About God and Peer Review: A Critical Inquiry. He also is editor of the MeOtzar HoRav series, which is devoted to publishing manuscripts by the Jewish philosopher Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.