As a young lecturer in philosophy and the eldest son of a
prominent Jewish family, Alan Montefiore faced two very different
understandings of his identity: the more traditional view that an
identity such as his carried with it, as a matter of given fact,
certain duties and obligations, and an opposing view, emphasized by
his studies in philosophy, according to which there can be no
rationally compelling move from statements of fact--whatever the
alleged facts may be--to "judgments of value." According to this
second view, individuals must in the end take responsibility for
determining their own values and obligations.
In this book, Montefiore looks back on his attempts to
understand the nature of this conflict and the misunderstandings it
may engender. In the process, he illustrates through personal
experience the practical implications of a characteristically
philosophical issue. Montefiore finally settles on the following:
while everyone has to accept that facts, including those of their
own situation, are whatever they may be, both the "traditional"
assumption that individuals must recognize certain values and
obligations as rooted in those very facts, and the contrary view
that individuals are ultimately responsible for determining their
own values, are deeply embedded in differing conceptions of society
and its relation to its members.
Montefiore then examines the misunderstandings between those for
whom identity constitutes in effect a conceptual bridge connecting
the facts of who and what a person may be to the value commitments
incumbent upon them, and those for whom the very idea of such a
bridge can be nothing but a confusion. Using key examples from the
notoriously vexed case of Jewish identity and from his own
encounters with its conflicting meanings and implications,
Montefiore depicts the practical significance of the differences
between these worldviews, particularly for those who hove to
negotiate them.
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