Lenn Evan Goodman (born 1944) is an American Jewish philosopher. His philosophy,particularly his constructive work,draws from classical and medieval sources as well as religious texts.[1] Goodman is also an academic,scholar,and a historian with research interest in metaphysics,ethics,and Jewish philosophy. He is serving as a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University.[2]
Goodman was a recipient of several awards such as the Baumgardt Memorial Award,the Gratz Centennial Prize,and the Earl Sutherland Prize,which is Vanderbilt University's highest research award.[3]
Goodman was married to Roberta Goodman,who died in 1996.[4] He is the father of the novelist and short story writer Allegra Goodman and Paula Fraenkel.[3][4]
Works
One of Goodman's philosophical projects is realist messianism,which evaluates the means to the messianic end.[5] Particularly,Goodman holds that the Torah and the way its principles are operationalized can be used to refine and perfect human nature.[5] According to him,such refinement process leads towards a messianic age.[5] It is associated with the Jewish concept of olam ha-ba or the world to come,which is used instead of the after life.[5] It constitutes an internalist position wherein the arrival of the Messiah is not enough if there is no moral transformation among the faithful.[6] The messianic age is said to be the teleological consummation of human intellectual,moral,and spiritual potential. Goodman distinguished this concept from the personal Messiah,which he said is not particularly successful among the Jewish people.[7]
Goodman also used Baruch Spinoza's views in his discourse on Jewish philosophy. Particularly,he maintained that the Dutch thinker's philosophy addresses the problems that the Jewish philosophical tradition share with other school through creative and constructive solutions.[8] Goodman also found several Jewish themes in the Spinoza's philosophy. There is,for instance,the strong emphasis on philosophical monotheism,driving what Goodman believes as the most coherent metaphysical approach to philosophical speculation.[8] Goodman also supported Spinoza's reconciliations of classical oppositions. This is demonstrated in the way perfection and imperfection have been reconciled. In reconstructing Spinoza,Goodman,said that God becomes the image of imperfect humanity not because perfection "becomes an active principle at work in the mind".[9]
Goodman translated Ibn Tufayl's 12th-century Arabic novel called Hayy ibn Yaqzan. This work also included philosophical commentary.[1] He also published a study called Maimonidean Naturalism,which belonged to the body of literature that attempted to articulate Maimonides views on creation.[10]
References
12345Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava; Hughes, Aaron W. (2014). Lenn E. Goodman: Judaism, Humanity, and Nature: Judaism, Humanity, and Nature. Leiden: BRILL. p.1. ISBN9789004280748.
↑Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava; Hughes, Aaron W. (2014). Lenn E. Goodman: Judaism, Humanity, and Nature: Judaism, Humanity, and Nature. Leiden: BRILL. p.1. ISBN978-90-04-28074-8.
123Kaplan, Leonard; Koltun-Fromm, Ken (2016). Imagining the Jewish God. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p.545. ISBN9781498517492.
1234Jenson, Robert; Korn, Eugene (2012). Covenant and Hope: Christian and Jewish Reflections. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p.237. ISBN9780802867049.
↑Seeskin, Kenneth (2012). Jewish Messianic Thoughts in an Age of Despair. New York: Cambridge University Press. p.66. ISBN9781107017924.
↑Frank, Daniel; Segal, Aaron (2017). Jewish Philosophy Past and Present: Contemporary Responses to Classical Sources. New York: Routledge. p.222. ISBN9781138015104.
12Ravven, Heidi M.; Goodman, Lenn Evan (2012). Jewish Themes in Spinoza's Philosophy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. p.6. ISBN978-0791453094.
↑Cristaudo, Wayne; Kaplan, Gregory (2011). Love in the Religions of the World. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p.97. ISBN9781443835046.
↑Wyschogrod, Edith (2009). Saintly Influence: Edith Wyschogrod and the Possibilities of Philosophy of Religion. New York: Fordham University Press. p.293. ISBN978-0-8232-3087-7.
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