Rabbinic Technologies of the Word:
Cognitive Perspectives on Judaism and Jewish Cultural Formation
To be published with Equinox Press (London/Sheffield) - Nov. 2012
I explore some fundamental themes in Jewish religious history from a “non-reductive” cognitive perspective. The focus is not meant to essentialize Judaism, but to examine the interface between Jewish religious norms (institutions, language, ritual) and biological systems over time. In fact, the force of my work is to question the very distinction between biology and culture, or at least, to complicate that relation. The book emphasizes the way in which these norms condition biological bodies over time, at the same time that it recognizes the role of human agency in reshaping human ecologies.
CHAPTER ONE: WHAT IS COGNITION?
CHAPTER TWO: CONTROL
CHAPTER THREE: NETWORK
CHAPTER FOUR: RATIONALITY
CHAPTER FIVE: NAMES
CHAPTER SIX: HYPERTEXT
CHAPTER SEVEN: ENVIRONMENT
Book Project
