Research Catalog

Title

On sacrifice / Moshe Halbertal.

Author

Halbertal, Moshe.

Publication

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

ix, 134 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

The idea and practice of sacrifice play a profound role in religion, ethics, and politics. In this brief book, philosopher Moshe Halbertal explores the meaning and implications of sacrifice, developing a theory of sacrifice as an offering and examining the relationship between sacrifice, ritual, violence, and love. On Sacrifice also looks at the place of self-sacrifice within ethical life and at the complex role of sacrifice as both a noble and destructive political ideal. In the religious domain, Halbertal argues, sacrifice is an offering, a gift given in the context of a hierarchical relationship. As such it is vulnerable to rejection, a trauma at the root of both ritual and violence. An offering is also an ambiguous gesture torn between a genuine expression of gratitude and love and an instrument of exchange, a tension that haunts the practice of sacrifice. In the moral and political domains, sacrifice is tied to the idea of self-transcendence, in which an individual sacrifices his or her self-interest for the sake of higher values and commitments. While self-sacrifice has great potential moral value, it can also be used to justify the most brutal acts. Halbertal attempts to unravel the relationship between self-sacrifice is far more problematic than exaggerated self-love. In his exploration of the positive and negative dimensions of self-sacrifice, Halbertal also addresses the role of past sacrifice in obligating future generations and in creating a bond for political associations, and considers the function of the modern state as a sacrificial community. -- from dust jacket.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Subject

• Sacrifice
• Sacrifice > Judaism
• Self-sacrifice

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-131) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Offering, rejection, and ritual -- Sacrifice, exchange, and love -- Sacrifice and its substitutes -- Self-transcendence and violence -- War and sacrificial logic -- Sacrifice and the political bond -- The tate and the sacrificial stage.

ISBN

• 9780691152851 (hardcover)
• 0691152853 (hardcover)

LCCN

^^2011037112

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library