Meaning in History after Heidegger: Löwith, Taubes, Funkenstein

• In Event: Catastrophe, Theory, History: Thinking German-Jewish after the Holocaust

Abstract

The discourse surrounding “meaning in history” found in the works of Karl Löwith, Jacob Taubes, and Amos Funkenstein - questions of modernity, causation and narrative, and messianism for the modern age - highlights a central element of post-War German- Jewish thought, and a newfound historical consciousness in the shadow of catastrophe. Each made a return to Germany after the Holocaust, both physically and intellectually, and each stressed, in agon with Martin Heidegger, the inseparable nature of history and philosophy. In rethinking this tradition, Löwith, Taubes, and Funkenstein confronted the “theological presuppositions of the philosophy of history”, challenging commonly held beliefs about progress and notions of the secular.

Author

• Moses Lapin, Hebrew University, Jerusalem