The redaction of desire: structure and editing of rabbinic teachings concerning ye#duser ("Inclination")

Schofer, Jonathan Wyn

doi:10.1163/1053699032000133627

Cited by 9 publications

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“…Thus, Boyarin’s work on the Logos (2004) uses postcolonial and linguistic theory to shed light on the ways that early Jews and early Christians hypostasized the Word and negotiated their own interrelationships through this cultural construction. Rosen-Zvi’s book Demonic Desires (2011) examines the yetzer hara , the evil inclination (for earlier work on the yetzer , see Porter 1901; Cohen Stuart 1984; Satlow 1996: 26-32; Schofer 2003; Valler 2007; Adelman 2009: 52-55). Building on insights from anthropology, Rosen-Zvi argues that the ancient Jewish idea of an internal evil inclination or desire was gradually hypostasized in later Babylonian rabbinic thought.…”

Section: Intermediary Beings In Rabbinic Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Ronis

2015

Currents in Biblical Research

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Recent years have seen a steady rise in the scholarly interest in intermediary beings in Late Antique Judaism. The present article traces developments in the academic study of intermediary beings, and surveys scholarly approaches to angels, demons, and other intermediary beings in (1) rabbinic literature, (2) Late Antique Jewish liturgy, (3) Hekhalot literature, and (4) material artifacts such as metal amulets and clay bowls. It traces a shift from a nineteenth-century discomfort with intermediary beings and a concomitant suggestion that such beings are a foreign import and corruption, to a more recent interest in examining how intermediary beings functioned within a dynamic and transcultural Late Antique Jewish world. The article concludes by proposing new and continued areas of interest for scholars of Late Antique Judaism.

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Section: Intermediary Beings In Rabbinic Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Ronis

2015

Currents in Biblical Research

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“…So what is yeser? Boyarin (1993) and Schofer (2003) argue that yeser is for rabbinics a given tendency-either one impulse for some rabbis, or two, struggling between good and evil. In some cases bad yeser may have good results, warranting reproduction and sexual satisfaction when properly channeled.…”

Section: Theological Notions Of Responsibility and Free Willmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Consciousness Cause Behavior?

Pockett

Banks²,

Gallagher³

2006

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Index vi ContentsDoes Consciousness Cause Behavior?dependent, but it is impossible in principle to say that either causes the other. Thus the whole concept of consciousness as agent is simply a misreading of the true situation.The chapters in part II (Philosophy) address the philosophical presuppositions the authors regard as having informed the empirical studies of motor control, action, and intention, and raise questions about what legitimately can be concluded from Libet's and Wegner's experimental results. One of the philosophical outcomes of Libet's experiments is that they might be taken as suggesting we do not have conscious free will. However, in chapter 6 Shaun Gallagher suggests that Libet's results show nothing about whether or not we have free will, because free will is a concept that does not apply to the movements Libet studied. Based on considerations of temporality and levels of description, Gallagher argues for a distinction between the initiation and control of movement, much of which is unconscious, and the conscious exercise of free will in intentional action. In chapter 7, Peter Ross considers what empirical science can contribute to an understanding of free will. He argues that empirical research cannot resolve the dispute between compatibilism and incompatibilism, although it can address the dispute between libertarianism (which claims that indeterminacy is, in certain contexts, sufficient for freedom) and the positions of hard determinism and compatibilism (which deny this). In chapter 8, Elisabeth Pacherie offers a sketch of a dynamic theory of intentions. She argues that several categories of intentions should be distinguished on the basis of their different functional roles and on the basis of the different types of contents they involve. To understand the distinctive nature of actions and intentionality requires a proper understanding of the dynamic transitions among these different categories of intentions. In this context Pacherie argues that the experiments conducted by Libet and Wegner fail to provide conclusive reasons to think that mental causation is generally illusory. In chapter 9,Timothy Bayne also offers a critical evaluation of Wegner's claim that the conscious will is an illusion. He argues that the content of the "experience of conscious will" is more complicated than has been assumed. He concludes that, although the role of the self and intentional states in the genesis of actions requires further explanation, it is unlikely that the phenomenology of agency is systematically misleading. There is little reason to think that our experience of ourselves as agents who do things for reasons leads us into error. In chapter 10, Alfred Mele develops a conceptual analysis of some of the concepts that inform the recent experimental studies of intentional action. Based on a distinction between unconscious urge and conscious decision, he suggests that the neural activity described by Libet's experiments may represent an urge to move rather than a decision to do so, and that the deci...

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“…In Rabbi Nathan certain passages present "the bad impulse" as an inborn dimension of humans, or even as an entity that can exist separately and, after death, judge a person (Schofer 2003). If the bad impulse opposes or hinders one's attempts to act correctly, then is it part of or separate from the subject?…”

Section: Ethics and Subject Formationmentioning

confidence: 99%

SELF, SUBJECT, AND CHOSEN SUBJECTION  Rabbinic Ethics and Comparative Possibilities

Schofer¹

2005

Journal of Religious Ethics

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This paper formulates the categories of "ethics," "self," and "subject" for an analysis of classical rabbinic ethics centered on the text, The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan. Early rabbis were concerned with the realms of life that today's scholars describe as ethics and self-cultivation, yet they had no overarching concepts for either the self/person or for ethics. This analysis, then, cannot rely only upon native rabbinic terminology, but also requires a careful use of contemporary categories. This paper first sets out basic features of Rabbi Nathan and presents appropriate formulations of the relevant scholarly terms. The latter sections address possibilities for employing and revising these categories in descriptive and comparative studies more broadly, first surveying relevant scholarship on Christian, Muslim, and Manichaean sources, and then turning to ancient East Asian sources with a particular focus upon passages in the Zhuangzi.EARLY RABBIS HAD A LARGE VOCABULARY through which they set out norms for action and character: ideals that the sages prescribed for students, the ways that the tradition (torah) interacted with basic impulses (yetzer, lev), and the motivations and emotions that a person was to maintain in relation to God, particularly love ('ahavah) and fear or reverence (yir'ah). Through such categories, and others, they discussed the nature of human emotions and desires, ideal states, and ways to transform oneself to attain such ideals. That is, they were concerned with ethics and self-cultivation, yet they had no overarching concepts either for the self/person or for ethics. A study of rabbinic ethics, then, cannot rely only upon native rabbinic terminology, but also requires a careful use of contemporary categories. In this paper, I first set out basic features of rabbinic ethics in the sources I examine, and then I present accounts of "ethics," the "self," and the "subject" that I argue are appropriate for expositing this particular case. My theoretical work aims not only to open up an account of this cultural group, but also to contribute to descriptive, JRE 33.2:255-291. C 2005 Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc.

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The redaction of desire: structure and editing of rabbinic teachings concerning ye#duser ("Inclination")

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Does Consciousness Cause Behavior?

SELF, SUBJECT, AND CHOSEN SUBJECTION  Rabbinic Ethics and Comparative Possibilities

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The redaction of desire: structure and editing of rabbinic teachings concerning ye#duser ("Inclination")

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Does Consciousness Cause Behavior?

SELF, SUBJECT, AND CHOSEN SUBJECTION Rabbinic Ethics and Comparative Possibilities

Contact Info

Product

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SELF, SUBJECT, AND CHOSEN SUBJECTION  Rabbinic Ethics and Comparative Possibilities