Two Models of Jewish Philosophy

The question of how to justify our practices is central in both general and Jewish philosophy. The author critiques abstract approaches to justifying Jewish practice from the history of Jewish philosophy. Instead, he suggests a practical model for justifying practices that he terms the Priority of Practice approach.

---

In a work that illustrates how Jewish philosophy can make a genuine contribution to general philosophical debate, Daniel Rynhold attempts to formulate a model for the justification of practices by applying the methods of modern analytic philosophy to approaches to the rationalization of the commandments from the history of Jewish philosophy. Through critical analysis of the methods of Moses Maimonides and Joseph Soloveitchik, Rynhold argues against propositional approaches to justifying practices that he terms Priority of Theory approaches and offers instead his own method, termed the Priority of Practice, which emphasizes the need for a more pragmatic take on this whole issue.