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BibliographyIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 247-264. 2012.
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IndexIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 265-270. 2012.
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NotesIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 203-246. 2012.
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Note on Translations and RomanizationIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. 2012.
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1Chapter 4. A Rebel against the Past, A Revealer of Secrets: Salomon Rubin and the East European Maskilic SpinozaIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 81-112. 2012.
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Chapter 5. From the Heights of Mount Scopus: Yosef Klausner and the Zionist Rehabilitation of SpinozaIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 113-154. 2012.
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Epilogue. Spinoza Redivivus in the Twenty-First CenturyIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 189-202. 2012.
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IllustrationsIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. 2012.
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3Spinoza's challenge to Jewish thought: writings on his life, philosophy, and legacy (edited book)Brandeis University Press. 2019.Arguably, no historical thinker has had as varied and fractious a reception within modern Judaism as Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (1632-77), the seventeenth-century philosopher, pioneering biblical critic, and Jewish heretic from Amsterdam. Revered in many circles as the patron saint of secular Jewishness, he has also been branded as the worst traitor to the Jewish people in modern times. Jewish philosophy has cast Spinoza as marking a turning point between the old and the new, as a radicalizer of …Read more
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43Thomas Aquinas and Antonio de Córdoba on self-defence: saving yourself as a private endBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (6): 1045-1063. 2018.ABSTRACTRevisionists about Aquinas’ teaching on private self-defence take the standard reading to hold that Aquinas applies a version of the Doctrine of Double Effect according to which the intentional killing of a wrongful attacker by a private person is morally prohibited while the non-intentional but foreseeable killing of the attacker is permitted. Revisionists dispute this reading and argue that Aquinas permits the intentional killing of wrongful attackers. I argue that revisionists mischar…Read more
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Introduction. Spinoza’s Jewish ModernitiesIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 1-14. 2012.
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Chapter 1. Ex-Jew, Eternal Jew: Early Representations of the Jewish SpinozaIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 15-34. 2012.
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Chapter 3. The First Modern Jew: Berthold Auerbach’s Spinoza and the Beginnings of an ImageIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 55-80. 2012.
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Chapter 6. Farewell, Spinoza: I. B. Singer and the Tragicomedy of the Jewish SpinozistIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 155-188. 2012.
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24Francis Bacon on the Certainty and Deceptiveness of Sense-PerceptionJournal of Early Modern Studies 11 (1): 17-35. 2023.There is an important tension within Francis Bacon’s discussions of sense-perception. On the one hand, he sometimes seems to regard sense-perception as a certain and unquestionable source of information about the world. On the other hand, he refers to errors, faults, desertions, and deceptions of the senses; indeed, he aims to offer a method which can remedy these errors. Thus, Bacon may appear conflicted about whether sense-perception provides reliable information about the world. But, I argue…Read more
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3Seventeenth-Century Scotism and the War Just on Both SidesJournal of the History of Ideas 83 (4): 643-658. 2022.Abstract:Can a war can be just on both sides? Within the Western just war tradition, Catholic theologians traditionally held wars on both sides to be logically impossible. This view went unchallenged until questioned by two seventeenth-century Irish Franciscan Scotists. These were Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil (Hugo Cavellus) and John Punch. In this paper I lay out the Scotist theological grounds that led them to admit to the possibility of wars just on both sides. I also conjecture on possible reasons wh…Read more
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10Moral theology and the historian’s conscience: is there a license to besmirch?Intellectual History Review 32 (1): 15-31. 2022.
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73Crucial Instances and Francis Bacon’s Quest for CertaintyHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 7 (1): 130-150. 2017.Francis Bacon’s method of induction is often understood as a form of eliminative induction. The idea, on this interpretation, is to list the possible formal causes of a phenomenon and, by reference to a copious and reliable natural history, to falsify all of them but one. Whatever remains must be the formal cause. Bacon’s crucial instances are often seen as the crowning example of this method. In this article, I argue that this interpretation of crucial instances is mistaken, and it has caused u…Read more
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8Probabilism Reconsidered: Deference to Experts, Types of Uncertainty, and MedicinesJournal of the History of Ideas 75 (3): 373-393. 2014.
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Chapter 2. Refining Spinoza: Moses Mendelssohn’s Response to the Amsterdam HereticIn The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an image, Princeton University Press. pp. 35-54. 2012.
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46The first modern Jew: Spinoza and the history of an imagePrinceton University Press. 2012.Pioneering biblical critic, theorist of democracy, and legendary conflater of God and nature, Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was excommunicated by the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam in 1656 for his "horrible heresies" and "monstrous deeds." Yet, over the past three centuries, Spinoza's rupture with traditional Jewish beliefs and practices has elevated him to a prominent place in genealogies of Jewish modernity. The First Modern Jew provides a riveting look at how Spinoza went from be…Read more
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10The Historical Method of Flavius JosephusJournal of the American Oriental Society 110 (1): 131. 1990.
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17Is Baconian Natural History Theory-Laden?Journal of Early Modern Studies 3 (1): 63-89. 2014.The recent surge of interest in Bacon's own attempts at natural history has revealed a complex interplay with his speculative ideas in natural philosophy. This research has given rise to the concern that his natural histories are theory-laden in a way that Bacon ought to find unacceptable, given his prescription in the Parasceve for a reliable body of factual instances that can be used as a storehouse for induction. This paper aims to resolve this tension by elaborating a moderate foundationalis…Read more
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29Scandal and Moral Demandingness in the Late ScholasticsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 23 (2): 256-276. 2015.This paper examines the views of a number of late scholastic moral theologians, with emphasis on Francisco Suárez, about the limits of the duty to refrain from those otherwise permissible actions which make it difficult for people to choose uprightly. In so doing, the paper singles out and analyses a number circumstantial factors capable of excusing ordinary agents for giving others an occasion of sin
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17th/18th Century Philosophy |