A man as a “citizen of two worlds”: The development of Kantian themes by Rosenzweig

Abstract

This article focuses on Rosenzweig’s major work The Star of Redemption. The author attempts to answer the principal question as to whether Rosenzweig’s thought belongs to the tradition of Kantian philosophy.The author addresses the Rosenzweig’s interpretation of Kant’s concept of freedom as a hermeneutical cipher to expose some of his considerations on human nature. Rosenzweig acknowledges Kant’s achievement in attributing a human act to the major fundament, which will save a human from the universal claims of philosophy.The intelligible character of human causation and freedom as a miracle of phenomenal world (as they are called in Rosenzweig’s reception of Kant) make it possible to guarantee an autonomous dimension of a human being that relates to the essence and is understandable for oneself, in other words, resistant to any claims of idealistic philosophy.The author believes that Rosenzweig arrives at the conclusion that nothing can be known about a human just as nothing can be known about god.An analysis of general architectonics of The Star of Redemption emphasises the central position of the theme of revelation. Rosenzweig stresses that the central position of revelation relates to the notion of freedom.The author believes that Rosenzweig is a thinker that occupies a position between old and new philosophy. For the author of The Star of Redemption, the logical and argumentative aspect (of analysis and synthesis) and the hermeneutical aspect of religious experience are necessary elements of the path to understanding the truth, which can be fully reproduced and implemented only in listening to the word of god.

Keywords

• Kant
• Rosenzweig
• The Star of Redemption
• freedom
• God
• man
• world