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Papers by michael maidan
Phenomenological reviews, 2020
Idol anxiety as critical theory, 2014
This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol A... more This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol Anxiety in this context is not only the title of a book, but also a state of mind. The realization that the early Mesopotamiaid somehting different than just worship man produced object which we learn from the mis pî ceremony, put us in a mood to acknowledge that perhaps the price we paid and made others pay for monotheism was not insignificant, and that there are other ways to address cultural objects than to subject them to the hammer of ideology critique. Or maybe not.
The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the ... more The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the cradle of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory..
Philosophy in review, 2017
Review of the recently translated correspondence between Hannah Arendt and Gershon Scholem
Philosophy in Review, 2020
Revista Estudios, 2017
This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in t... more This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in the light of the reintroduction of the question of evil in political discourse and in contemporary philosophical thought.
Cuadernos Judaicos, 2016
Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual... more Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual de izquierda judeo-argentino León Rozitchner (1924-2011). Tomando como punto de partida su libro Ser Judío (1967), la interpretación que Rozitchner hace del judaísmo es analizada en sus escritos sobre san Agustín y sus últimos escritos de la década de los años 2000. Rechazando la interpretación del cristianismo como mera ideología que refleja en forma distorsionada el modo de producción social, Rozitchner elabora en sus últimas obras la idea que el cristianismo es la matriz y condición de posibilidad de la sociedad capitalista, y que su oposición al judaísmo no puede ser otra que una animosidad fundamental de la que la Shoah no es una excepción aberrante sino su manifestación más ejemplar.
Philosophy in review, 2011
Phenomenological reviews, 2020
Idol anxiety as critical theory, 2014
This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol A... more This paper explores Critical Theory and its limits from the point of view of Idol Anxiety. Idol Anxiety in this context is not only the title of a book, but also a state of mind. The realization that the early Mesopotamiaid somehting different than just worship man produced object which we learn from the mis pî ceremony, put us in a mood to acknowledge that perhaps the price we paid and made others pay for monotheism was not insignificant, and that there are other ways to address cultural objects than to subject them to the hammer of ideology critique. Or maybe not.
The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the ... more The life of Felix Weil, one of the creators of Frankfurt's Institut for Social Research, the cradle of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory..
Philosophy in review, 2017
Review of the recently translated correspondence between Hannah Arendt and Gershon Scholem
Philosophy in Review, 2020
Revista Estudios, 2017
This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in t... more This paper reviews Levinas’ understanding of evil and his rejection of any form of theodicy, in the light of the reintroduction of the question of evil in political discourse and in contemporary philosophical thought.
Cuadernos Judaicos, 2016
Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual... more Este artículo explora el rol de la experiencia judía en el pensamiento del filósofo e intelectual de izquierda judeo-argentino León Rozitchner (1924-2011). Tomando como punto de partida su libro Ser Judío (1967), la interpretación que Rozitchner hace del judaísmo es analizada en sus escritos sobre san Agustín y sus últimos escritos de la década de los años 2000. Rechazando la interpretación del cristianismo como mera ideología que refleja en forma distorsionada el modo de producción social, Rozitchner elabora en sus últimas obras la idea que el cristianismo es la matriz y condición de posibilidad de la sociedad capitalista, y que su oposición al judaísmo no puede ser otra que una animosidad fundamental de la que la Shoah no es una excepción aberrante sino su manifestación más ejemplar.
Philosophy in review, 2011
Phenomenological Review, 2024
Revierw of Haberma's Also a History of Philosophy
CUADERNOS JUDAICOS No 40, 2023
Review of Jerry Muler's biography of Jacob Taubes.
Dorsal, 2013
El objetivo de esta nota es presentar un número de publicaciones recientes sobre la obra de Fouca... more El objetivo de esta nota es presentar un número de publicaciones recientes sobre la obra de Foucault que tienen en común enfrentarse a la pregunta, enunciada recientemente por Phillippe Sabot, de «¿cómo reconstituir un corpus a partir de un archivo?» 1. Esta dificultad se agudiza en el caso de Foucault, quien rechaza la pertinencia tanto de la historia de las ideas, como la noción misma de autor, que el problematiza en una famosa conferencia de 1969. En esta, Foucault señala que autoría es una relación de atribución. Autor es aquel al que se le puede atribuir lo dicho o lo escrito; pero la atribución, incluso en aquellos casos en los que se trata de un autor conocido, nunca es algo evidente. Se trata, más bien, del resultado de operaciones críticas complejas, raramente justificadas. Hay una incertidumbre del opus 2. Comentando acerca de la traducción al francés de las obras completas de Nietzsche que Foucault y Deleuze codirigieron, Foucault se interroga retóricamente qué constituye una parte de la obra. ¿Acaso también una nota de lavandería? 3 Poco podía Foucault imaginar que esta pregunta habría de formularse algunos años más tarde acerca de su propia obra. En el texto de la conferencia de 1969, Foucault diferencia entre «masas
Philosophy in Review, 2023
Phenomenological Reviews, 2022
Book review of the recently published biography of Jacob Taubes
Philosophy in Review, 2022
Kleinberg's recent book can be read as a biography of Emmanuel Levinas as a Jewish intellectual a... more Kleinberg's recent book can be read as a biography of Emmanuel Levinas as a Jewish intellectual and educator. The pages of the book's four chapters have a two-column layout, labelled 'Our side' and 'the Other Side.' To that effect, we need to read the Introduction, then column A from chapters One through Four. Then, to go back and read column B from chapters One through Four, and lastly, the concluding chapter. If we follow the plain reading, we encounter a competent account of Levinas's intellectual development, with particular emphasis on his turn, after the war, from a career in philosophy and literature to an involvement with the problem of French Judaism's survival after the Holocaust. Kleinberg's account is solid, showcases the secondary literature, and benefits from the publication in recent years of Levinas's papers and drafts from the war and early postwar periods. In addition, Kleinberg provides a good characterization of Levinas's role as teacher and later director of the École Normale Israelite Orientale (the teachers training school of the Alliance Israelite Universel) and his involvement in the Colloques des Intellectuels Juifs de Langue Française. He provides a convenient chronological table of the meetings of the Colloques, their subjects, the title of Levinas's lecture, and the date of publication of the proceedings, or in some cases, of the publication of Levinas's lesson in other venues (xv-xviii). However, this reading would be contrary to the author's stated intentions. The whole layout of the book conspires against it. We need to treat the two-column page layout as a conceptual claim to follow the author's intention. Kleinberg follows Derrida's Glas's steps, using a multicolumn format. This format evokes the layout used in the traditional Jewish editions of Scripture and the Talmud, with one crucial difference. In the traditional Jewish editions, the center of the page is occupied by Scripture or the Talmudic text, surrounded by the most authoritative medieval commentaries. There is only commentary in Derrida's Glas and Kleinberg's text, unanchored to any consecrated ur-text. This architecture is supposed to explore the problem of the transcendence of Levinas's commentary. Kleinberg has been rehearsing this question in some of his previous work. A 2012 paper (In/finite Time: Tracing Transcendence to Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Lectures, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 20:3, 375-387) asks about transcendence in the context of Levinas's Totality and Infinity and suggests the importance of the Talmudic Turn for his thinking. His more recent Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past (2017), refers to the present book as a concrete study of a double science of history inspired by Derrida's critique of the metaphysics of presence. Kleinberg presents his thesis in the Introduction, pointing to the fact that contrary to some of his disciples' hagiographical accounts of Levinas's life, he did not train in the study of the Talmud in the traditional 'Vilna style.' Therefore, he cannot be a link in the transmission chain, which originated in the Gaon of Vilna and his students and was later popularized by rabbi Chaim of Volozhin (p. 3). Levinas never made such a claim. On the contrary, he always claimed to be a pupil
Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, 2022
Book review of Freud and the Limits of Bourgeois individualism
Phenomenological Reviews, 2021
Review of Stuart Elden's "The Early Foucault".
Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, 2020
Bernard E Harcourt Critique and Praxis: A Critical Philosophy of Illusions, Values, and Action
Phenomenological Reviews, 2020
Review of Martin Jay's book Splinter in your eye: The Frankfurt School Provocations, 2020
Philosophy in Review, 2020
Book Review of "Genealogies of the Secular"
Phenomenological Reviews, 2020
Book Revew of Penal Theories and Institutons
Reading Religion, 2020
Book Review of Shlomo Avineri's Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution, Yale University Press, 2019
Phenomenological Reviews, 2020
Review of the English translation of Foucault's "Discourse and Truth" and "Parresia". Follow the ... more Review of the English translation of Foucault's "Discourse and Truth" and "Parresia". Follow the link to read online.
Metapsychology Online Reviews, Sep 23, 2019
A review of Todd May's "A Decent Life."
Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, May 3, 2013
Metapsychology on line Reviews, Jul 23, 2013
Puilosophy in Review, Sep 2013
Review of Lazzarato's Signs and Machines.
Review of Foucault's 1980 Dartmouth lectures.
On the life and work of Felix Weil, one of the fathers of the Frankfurt School.
Review of the recently published correspondence between Arendt and Scholem.