The Talmud and Western History, Politics and Law: A Conference in Celebration of the Translation of the Talmud Into Italian

https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/event-invitations-2017/1055/thumbnail.jp

“What’s a Nation-State For? Reflections on Law, Religion, and Nationalism in a Post-Secular Age”

https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/event-invitations-2019/1004/thumbnail.jp

Islam and contemporary civilization: evolving ideas, transforming relations [Book Review]

This article reviews the book 'Islam and contemporary civilization: evolving ideas, transforming relations', by Halim Rane

VI. Renaissance Humanism

Between the end of the High Middle Ages (about 1350) and the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, the character of Western Civilization was profoundly altered. Earlier chapters have already told how most institutions and values characteristic of the High Middle Ages began to disintegrate. Meanwhile, other institutions and ideas, many of which we think of as modern, gradually came to the fore. The intensification of this process of transition from medieval to modern is called the Renaissance. [excerpt

XIII. Political Liberalism and Nationalism, 1815-1871

The first half of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of two secular faiths which became key features of Western thought: political liberalism and nationalism- Their tenets were not wTiblly ne^ As~early as the lourteenth century when medieval feudalism was giving way to the rising national state, Marsiglio of Padua (c. 1275 - c, 1343) had announced that political authority was properly lodged in the people. The seventeenth century had produced in John Locke (1632-1704) a man whose ideas on government later became a wellspring for political liberalism. The same era also found nationalism accentuated by colonial rivalries and mercantilist doctrines. Later, the Enlightenment left a legacy to both political liberalism and nationalism. The philosophes had reflected on ways and means of broadening the basis for government founded to preserve those inalienable rights based on natural law. In addition, their attacks on Christian superstitions undermined popular respect for religion, thereby opening the way for a new object of reverence. [excerpt

XVII. The Transformation of Liberalism and Nationalism, 1871-1914

In the first half of the nineteenth century liberalism and nationalism were key concepts of the major political and economic movements within Western Civilization, As has been explained in the preceding chapter, by the end of the century new radical movements — socialism, syndicalism, and anarchism — had supplanted them on the extreme left of the political spectrum. By 1914 this new Left was a significant factor in many countries. However, it was still a minority movement and, for most people living in the Western World between 1871 and 1914, nationalism and liberalism were more important in determining the texture of politics. Even many conservatives now compromised with them. That these were not the same liberalism and nationalism which had been the watchwords of reform half a century before should not be surprising because the world in which they operated and often conquered had also changed. [excerpt

2. An Agricultural Revolution

While capitalism was making rapid strides toward dominating English industry, changes were taking place in agriculture which made it more efficient and productive, and which prepared it to be fitted eventually into the industrial capitalistic pattern. Actually, changes in the direction had been occurring in English agriculture since the revival of trade discussed in earlier chapters. [excerpt

5. Social Darwinism Reconsidered

Although the contemporary reaction to the implications of evolution was generally one of long-term optimism, an antithetical reaction did exist. Seen in stark terms, evolutionary theories were depressing to those who, on religious or humanitarian grounds, found the reduction of life to an irrational and brutal struggle for existence disturbing and provocative. There was, however, an important body of thought which accepted Darwin\u27s findings without embracing the social or ethical implications of Social Darwinism. Many who studied Darwin came to the conclusion that it was possible to concede that man is an animal, but an animal capable of moral and ethical behavior, and therefore responsible to do more than involve himself in the struggle within his environment. They believed that there was evidence that man could and must impose his morality upon his environment unless he wished to lose his humanity. [excerpt

IX. Early Modern Europe, 1500-1789

This chapter is concerned with the major political and economic developments which occurred in Western Civilization between about 1500 and the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. In the two preceding chapters we have already traced some of the major religious and scientific movements contemporary with this period, Luther posted his famous theses in 1517. Copernicus\u27 book was published in 1543. In the next chapter we will examine the Enlightenment, the major cultural achievement of the eighteenth century. [excerpt

1. The Logical Atomism of Bertrand Russell

As can easily be seen, the impact of these three schools of contemporary philosophy — the linguistic, the logical analytical, and the logical empiricist — has been largely negative, critical, and destructive, especially with regard to theological beliefs, metaphysical systems, and value judgment. Thus the particular growing edges of contemporary philosophy have contributed their full share to the shaking of the foundations of Western Civilization. But, during the last few decades they have presented less of a united front than before. The differences which have appeared have come largely from a rethinking of the status and role of value, and these differences have found expression in a large number of philosophers both in England and the United States. One of the most articulate and influential of the men who have been identified with the whole critical movement is Bertrand Russell. While he has characteristically never accepted the label of any school of thought, it is with this movement of criticism and analysis that he is most closely associated. His thought and his life, as he himself has said, is reminiscent of that of the aristocratic rebels of the early nineteenth century. [excerpt