My current work is available here. You may also enjoy reading The Dabbler, my recent series of web essays on just about anything.
Who am I to write
a book?
I don't know.
I'm just writing it.
You're just reading
it.
Let's not worry
about it.
.. . james simon kunen
On
the Nature and Origins of the Capitalist Religion
Research paper developing the concept of capitalism as a religion.
After historicizing the notion of "value" and its parameters (in particular
the secular/religious division in Protestantism), I argue that the American
model of religion and society sets up two distinct "value-spheres" of 'religious'
and 'secular' which have little to say to one another. As consumerist capitalism
grows to dominate American social interaction, the religious "sphere" decreases
in importance; consequently, capitalism develops market-based norms, which
can be seen as a set of creeds and behavioral code. The paper concludes
not by critiquing capitalist religion as such, but rather by attempting
to develop models of subverting it, choosing to re"value" extra-economic
goods, as distinguished from (re-)linking the Good with the world of goods.
(50 text pages; January, 1996)
Critiquing
Capitalism's Critics
Research paper analyzing and deconstructing the critiques of capitalism
offered by Marx, Veblen, Pope John Paul II, and Pat Buchanan. The paper
tries to separate "justice-based" and "value-based" critiques in each source,
and analyze how the latter seeks to posit a 'real' human value in contrast
to the dehumanizing false values of capitalism. The paper concludes with
a "deconstruction" of these critiques' Other: the Jew, from its archetypal
usurious origin to Marx's hucksterer's to Buchanan's New York lawyers and
bankers. Finally, the paper suggests that a Rortian/liberal ironist gloss
can minimize the totalizing and demonizing aspects of Marx's and similar
critiques. (45 text pages; February, 1996)
Derrida
and Nonsense Theology
Seminar paper suggesting a potential candidate for a Derridian (a)theology:
gnostic-driven 'nonsense theology,' which may avoid logocentrism and ontotheology
by favoring arational vowel meditation over both 'traditional' theological
predicates and the suspect hyperpredicates of ordinary negative theology.
(30 text pages; April, 1996).
Particularity
by any other Name: Rosenzweig and the Postmodern
Essay proposing that noted Jewish post-Hegelian philosopher Franz Rosenzweig
be considered as an early postmodern thinker with specifically Jewish and
specifically postmodern concerns with surface, particularity, and infinity,
in his masterwork entitled The Star of Redemption. (13 text
pages; January, 1998)
On
the Conditions for Being Postmodern
Short book note on David Harvey's The Condition of Postmodernity,
in which the idea of postmodernity is examined and played with. (7 text
pages; November, 1993)
Hasidism
and Nature: Between Negation and Affirmation
Short research paper on models of the man-nature-God relation in Hasidism,
focusing on the circle of the Besht, the Tanya, and Rabbi Nachman
of Bratzlav. (15 text pages; May, 1998)
The
Psychological Serpent: Dualism and Evil in R. Nachman of Bratzlav
Seminar paper analyzing the psychologization of mythological evil in
the writings of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav in the context of R. Nachman's
dualistic worldview. (15 text pages; September, 1998)
Paths
to the Divine: Ecstasy and Theology in R. Dov Baer of Lubavitch
Seminar paper analyzing the relationship between R. Dov Baer of Lubavitch's
emphasis on contemplation as a means to attain ecstasy -- and self-delusive
error being the chief obstacle to it -- and his theology of panentheism
and Divine nothingness. Concluding remarks on the psychology of mysticism
and relationship between the esoteric and the ethical. (30 text pages;
January, 1997)
Knowledge,
Torah, and Ultimacy in the Meor Einayim.
Term paper on the infinity of God and experience of God in the homily
of R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, Meor Einayim (The Light of the
Eyes). Paper analyzes the meaning of Torah 'study' and the concept of panentheism
in this beautiful iteration of early Hasidic theology. (32 text pages;
May, 1994)
Existence
in the Tanya
Research paper on the categories of 'yesh' and 'ayin,' (being and nothingness?)
in the Tanya, the masterwork of the founder of Chabad Hasidism, R. Schneur
Zalman of Liadi. (28 text pages; April, 1994)
The
Anxiety of Influence: Philosophical Questions and Kabbalistic Answers
Seminar paper discussing how Kabbalah adapts Jewish mysticism not to
the substantive doctrines of rationalist philosophy but to the philosophical
orientation towards Judaism as a system with both "surface" and "depth,"
"letter" and "spirit." (25 text pages; January, 1998)
Resisting
Dualism: The Philosophical and Hermeneutical Arguments of Irenaeus
Seminar paper analyzing the retreat into anthropological and ontological
monism in Irenaeus's Against Heresy, together with the hermeneutical
polemics against gnostic dualism. (21 text pages; May, 1998)
Dualism
and its Perils: The Case of Mendelssohn
Investigation into whether the Enlightenment project of Moses Mendelssohn
and the early reforms of the Westphalia constitory were "responsible" for
Reform Judaism. I conclude that not only "high reform" but the conservatism
of Orthodoxy can be traced to Mendelssohnian dualistic ideas regarding
divine legislation and rational religion. (15 text pages; May, 1998)
Saadia
Gaon's
kavod nivra and its place in his Philosophy of Judaism
Research paper on the subject of the "kavod," the 'glory' of God which
Saadia Gaon, medieval Jewish philosopher/theologian/rabbi, reinterprets
as being a created entity which mediates between God's revelation and the
world. The doctrine of a created kavod has considerable ramifications for
the development of medieval Jewish mysticism and theology, which are discussed
in the paper. (25 text pages; December, 1993)
What
is God?
Term paper trying to understand what Maimonides thinks God is in the
Guide
to the Perplexed, his philosophical masterpiece. I would say more,
but only the discerning can find out. (20 text pages; January, 1994)
Why
is this Night Different from all other Nights?
Functionalist and symbolic analyses of the Seder and its place in American
and Israeli Jewish religious practice. (14 text pages; May, 1998)
On
the Uniqueness of the Holocaust
Full title: On the Uniqueness of the Holocaust and its Ramifications
for the Relevance of Philosophy. Written for Professor and philosopher
Emil Fackenheim, this paper argues against Fackenheim's thesis that the
holocaust is, philosophically speaking, unique, and suggests that its very
nonuniqueness calls into question philosophy's role as bearer of explanation
and meaning. (25 text pages; December, 1993)
On
Listening to the Kulturkampf: How America Overruled Bowers v. Hardwick,
even though Romer v. Evans Didn't.
Essay published in the Duke Law Journal in Fall, 2000, on the subject
of the Supreme Court's anti-sodomy case of 1985, and whether it is still
good law after fifteen years of changes in society's view of gays and families.
The essay argues that Bowers hinged on a delegitimizing of gay family units
which may have been plausible in 1985 but which is not supported by the
facts in 2000. (60 text pages; October, 2000)
Geoengineering:
A Climate Change Manhattan Project
Article published in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal discussing
the prospects of geoengineering, the intentional manipulation of Earth's
climatic systems, as a remedy for global climate change. Defends geoengineering
against frequent objections, and attacks the focus on preventive regulation.
(80 text pages; January, 1998)
Rethinking
Regulatory Reform: Toxics, Politics, and Ethics
Note published in the Yale Law Journal analyzing EPA's regulation of
toxic substances in terms of harm allocation. Divides regulation into three
distinct elements: risk determination, a non-scientific, ethical judgment
of how much harm is acceptable; risk assessment, a scientific measurement;
and risk management, a political decision on what harms may feasibly be
prevented. Especially trenchant in light of the D.C. Circuit's 1999 decision
overturning EPA non-threshold-pollutant standards, the Note observes that
the first of the three steps cannot be anything other than an ethical,
and rather arbitary, decision by the agency. The remainder of the Note
analyzes varieties of cost-benefit analysis and how they turn toxic harm
allocation from a liability regime, in which people own the entitlement
to bodily integrity, to a property regime, where toxics producers own the
entitlement. (50 text pages; May, 1996)
Categories
and Cultures in Religious Discrimination
Research paper analyzing the treatment of 'religions' and 'cultures'
in First Amendment jurisprudence, focusing on the recent
Airmont
case, in which a group of Hasidim successfully fought exclusionary zoning
ordinances targeted at their community. The paper argues that cultural,
not religious, discrimination actually motivated Airmont's residents, and
that the First Amendment might not have been properly applied. I conclude
by noting tensions within the First Amendment on this point. (30 text pages;
December, 1995)
Philosophy,
Explanation, and Coherence
Paper defending the idea of philosophy of law as explanation to provide
higher level coherence to localized disturbances of social norms. Discusses
shortcomings of law and economics in this view, and suggests that coherence-projects
may be suspect in a postmodern context. (18 text pages; May, 1996)
Moot
Court Brief
Petitioners' brief in Morris Tyler Moot Court of Appeals competition
at Yale Law School, in the case of Richardson v. McKnight regarding
the extension of qualified immunity to private correctional officers. Finalist
for the 1997 Benjamin Cardozo Brief Writing prize. (28 text pages; March,
1997)
Standing
Brief
Plaintiff's Brief in Support of Partial Summary Judgment as to Standing,
which I wrote while a summer law clerk at the Sierra Club Legal Defense
Fund in Bozeman, Montana. (Reproduced with the kind permission of SCLDF)
and which was filed in litigation. (The motion was ultimately granted on
the legal basis developed in the brief: standing of some parties confers
standing for all). (8 text pages; June, 1995)
The
Trouble with Quietism in Judaism
Dvar Torah contrasting Noah and Abraham as Jewish role models, and
questioning whether quietism, contemplation, and a life of the spirit contradict
fundamental norms within Judaism.
Against
Faith
Personal essay discussing the role faith should play in Jewish religious
belief. The argument is roughly that given the aesthetic sense of wonder
that stems from the scientifically verifiable, and the political and psychological
difficulties of faith as an existential condition, religious Jews should
limit what they 'take on faith' to a bare minimum and instead construct
religious responses to the wonders of creation, as God ordered Job from
the whirlwind. (15 text pages; January, 1996)
A
Letter on Quality
My own 'letter to a young poet' describing why a non-lazy life may
have merits after all, in a colloquial, zen-&-motorcycle-maintenance
vein. Sincere, although necessarily leaving some questions unanswered.
(8 text pages; July, 1995)
No
More Trivia
A statement against irony. Recent elucidation of my sense, following
the death of a determined and admirable friend, that the postmodern tendency
to irony fails any pragmatist definition of usefulness and thus must be
ultimately discarded in favor of a mode of relation which engages the individual
with valued life-goals. (15 text pages; February, 1996)
Trees
Like Fire: Poems 1993-96
Anthology of my poetry, some published, some not. (40 text pages; last
edited November, 1996)
The
Kilmer Collection
Each year, Columbia University's Philolexian Society hosts a Bad Poetry
Contest in memory of A. Joyce Kilmer, author of 'Trees.' Here are some
of my recent entries. (8 text pages; Last update February, 2001)
Spans
of Broken Bridges: miscellaneous poems
These are the poems that thematically or stylistically didn't make
it into Trees but
I figured I'd put on the web anyway. (Added November, 1996)
Little
Buddy
Winner of the 1994 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest, given
by the Philolexian Society at Columbia University. Here reproduced with
never-before-seen outtakes in a critical, annotated edition.
Ode
to the University Library
Short ode to the priapic University Library at Cambridge University,
which by the way was the exterior shot of the office in Terry Gilliam's
'Brazil.'
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