Lenn E. Goodman
Lenn E. Goodman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alan Mittleman Lenn Goodman 1944 (age 79–80) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Jewish philosophy |
| Institutions | Vanderbilt University |
Lenn Evan Goodman(born 1944) is an American Jewishphilosopher.His philosophy, particularly his constructive work, draws fromclassicalandmedievalsources as well as religious texts.[1]Goodman is also an academic, scholar, and a historian with research interest inmetaphysics,ethics,andJewish philosophy.He is serving as a professor of philosophy atVanderbilt University.[2]
Biography
[edit]Goodman was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is the son of Calvin and Florence Goodman. His father was aWorld War IIveteranwhile his mother was apoetand professor of English.[1]His family moved toCambridge, Massachusettsand later toPutney, Vermontbefore finally settling inLos Angeles, California.[1]
In 1965, Goodman completed a bachelor's degree in Philosophy andMiddle EasternLanguages and Literatures atHarvard University.He later obtained his doctorate in 1968 as aMarshall Scholar.Goodman started teaching at theUniversity of California Los Angeles, (UCLA)in 1969. He transferred to theUniversity of Hawaiiand was part of its Department of Philosophy until 1994.[1]He is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Professor in Humanities atVanderbilt University.[3]
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 is married to Roberta Goodman and is the father of the novelist and short story writerAllegra Goodmanand Paula Fraenkel.[3]
Works
[edit]One of Goodman's philosophical projects is realistmessianism,which evaluates the means to the messianic end.[4]Particularly, Goodman holds that theTorahand the way its principles are operationalized can be used to refine and perfect human nature.[4]According to him, such refinement process leads towards a messianic age.[4]It is associated with the Jewish concept ofolam ha-baor the world to come, which is used instead of the after life.[4]It constitutes an internalist position wherein the arrival of the Messiah is not enough if there is no moral transformation among the faithful.[5]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.[6]
Goodman also usedBaruch 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.[7]Goodman also found several Jewish themes in the Spinoza's philosophy. There is, for instance, the strong emphasis on philosophicalmonotheism,driving what Goodman believes as the most coherentmetaphysicalapproach to philosophical speculation.[7]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".[8]
Goodman translatedIbn Tufayl's 12th-centuryArabicnovel calledHayy ibn Yaqzan.This work also included philosophical commentary.[1]He also published a study calledMaimonidean Naturalism,which belonged to the body of literature that attempted to articulateMaimonidesviews on creation.[9]
References
[edit]- ^abcdeTirosh-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.
- ^abcKaplan, Leonard; Koltun-Fromm, Ken (2016).Imagining the Jewish God.Lanham, MD: Le xing ton Books. p. 545.ISBN9781498517492.
- ^abcdJenson, 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.
- ^abRavven, 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.
