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In Hebrew. Part 3: 306 pages. Part 4: 222 pages. 245 x 161 mm. Each part has its own title page. This is a philosophical dictionary containing the terminology of medieval religious philosophers. The work, first published in Berlin (1928-1933) remains unsurpassed to this day. Its stated objective was to enlarge modern Hebrew vocabulary by restoring to use the many terms and expressions coined by medieval Hebrew translators. The complete Thesaurus includes 3042 entries, some 1200 pages in four volumes, plus one volume of texts. Klatzkin based his work on many philosophical works in Hebrew, including some available only in manuscript, collecting the philosophical terms occurring in them. His philosophical lexicon is conceived as a Thesaurus. A typical entry for a term is constructed of the term (vowelized) ; a very brief definition (in Hebrew) ; equivalent terms in other languages (especially German, occasionally also English, French, Latin, Greek) ; significant text extracts, in which the term occurs; a list of related terms to be looked up elsewhere in the Thesaurus. Where a given term has more than one meaning, its different meanings are carefully distinguished. The text extracts make this Thesaurus a valuable research tool. For almost a century now, this work has been an indispensable companion to student of Jewish intellectual life. Jakob Klatzkin Klaczkin (Jakob Klatzkin, Yakov/Jakub Klaczkin) (October 3, 1882 Byaroza-Kartuskaya, Belarus (then Russian Empire) - March 26, 1948 Vevey, Switzerland) was a Jewish philosopher, publicist, author, and publisher. Klatzkin was born to the local Rabbi Eliyahu Klatzkin, received his early schooling from his father and at yeshivas in Lithuania. Later he traveled to Germany to study with the philosopher Hermann Cohen. Klatzkin received his doctorate from the University of Bern, Switzerland, then returned to Germany to write for Hebrew periodicals and to establish Jewish publishing firms. He also served as director of the Jewish National Fund in Cologne. He wrote widely on the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza and together with Nahum Goldmann he compiled 10 of 15 anticipated volumes of the German Encyclopaedia Judaica. Klatzkin had a close relationship with Arnold Schoenberg, the great Jewish composer, who was also active in advancing cause of establishing a place of refuge for the Jews in the 1930s. After the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, Klatzkin fled to Switzerland and earned a living giving lectures on various Jewish subjects. He moved to the United States in 1941 and taught at the College of Jewish Studies in Chicago. He returned to Switzerland in 1947 and died there at the age of 66. He rejected the notion of the Jews being "a chosen people" and argued that the only meaningful goal for Zionism was regaining the land of Israel and normalizing the conditions of Jewish existence. He believed that assimilationists were "traitors to their Judaism." He criticized Ahad Ha-Am's notion that morality was the key to Israel's uniqueness. He maintained that the spiritual definition of Judaism denied freedom of thought and led to national chauvinism. Klatzkin proposed a Jewish covenant that is based on secular-nationalist terms, a Jewish state based on territorial Zionism that is a normal, national state and culture. Klatzkin also developed an alternative to the Freudian view of life, which holds that it can only be understood from within. This involved his theory of the mind, which emphasizes the so-called rift between life and the spirit or the living or the original, unmediated soul and the spirit. The conflict, according to Klatzkin, is the reason why man lives in constant alienation from the world. Seller Inventory # 015886
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