Genocide in Jewish Thought [Paperback]

This book argues that one means of preventing genocide is to think concretely about our flesh-and-blood relations to fellow human beings.Exploring issues such as how we understand the soul, the use of torture, and the prevalence of hunger, this book argues that one means of preventing genocide is to think concretely about our flesh-and-blood relations to fellow human beings. It demonstrates that certain modern philosophical modes of thought, as well as traditional Christian and Islamic thought, may contribute to a genocidal tendency. It also shows how Jewish thought promotes ways of thinking that may preclude genocide.Exploring issues such as how we understand the soul, the use of torture, and the prevalence of hunger, this book argues that one means of preventing genocide is to think concretely about our flesh-and-blood relations to fellow human beings. It demonstrates that certain modern philosophical modes of thought, as well as traditional Christian and Islamic thought, may contribute to a genocidal tendency. It also shows how Jewish thought promotes ways of thinking that may preclude genocide.Among the topics explored in this book are ways of viewing the soul, the relation between body and soul, environmentalist thought, the phenomenon of torture, and the philosophical and theological warrants for genocide. Presenting an analysis of abstract modes of thought that have contributed to genocide, the book argues that a Jewish model of concrete thinking may inform our understanding of the abstractions that can lead to genocide. Its aim is to draw upon distinctively Jewish categories of thought to demonstrate how the conceptual defacing of the other human being serves to promote the murder of peoples, and to suggest a way of thinking that might help prevent genocide.1. Introduction: a name, not an essence; 2. Why Jewish thought and what makes it Jewish?; 3. Deadly philosophical abstraction; 4. The stranger in your midst; 5. Nefesh: the soul as flesh and blood; 6. Thel“%