Avishai Margalit
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Avishai Margalit ( he, אבישי מרגלית, born 1939) is an Israeli
professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
in
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
. From 2006 to 2011, he served as the
George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histo ...
Professor at the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
in
Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
.


Early life and education

Avishai Margalit was born in
Afula Afula ( he, עפולה Arabic: العفولة) is a city in the Northern District of Israel, often known as the "Capital of the Valley" due to its strategic location in the Jezreel Valley. As of , the city had a population of . Afula's ancient ...
,
Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
, and grew up in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. He was educated in Jerusalem and did his army service in the airborne
Nahal Nahal ( he, נח"ל) (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training ...
. In 1960 he started his studies at the Hebrew University, majoring in philosophy and economics. He earned his
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in 1963 and his
M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in philosophy in 1965, his M.A. thesis focusing on
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
's theory of labor. During his years of study he worked as an instructor in a youth village, working with immigrant children who arrived with the mass wave of immigration in the 1950s. Thanks to a British Council scholarship he went to
Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...
in
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where he stayed from 1968 to 1970. His doctoral dissertation, "The Cognitive Status of Metaphors", written under the supervision of Professor
Yehoshua Bar-Hillel Yehoshua Bar-Hillel ( he, יהושע בר-הלל; 8 September 1915, in Vienna – 25 September 1975, in Jerusalem) was an Israeli philosopher, mathematician, and linguist. He was a pioneer in the fields of machine translation and formal linguisti ...
, earned him his
Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
1970 from the Hebrew University.


Career

In 1970, Margalit started teaching as an assistant professor at the philosophy department of the Hebrew University where he stayed throughout his academic career, climbing the ladder of academic promotions. In 1998–2006 he was appointed the Shulman Professor of Philosophy, and in 2006 he retired as a professor emeritus from the Hebrew University. Since 2006 Margalit has been the George Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He is also a member of the Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University. Margalit was a visiting scholar at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
(1974–5); a visiting fellow at Wolfson College,
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
(1979–80); a visiting professor at the
Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...
and a fellow at the
Max Planck Institute Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) (1 ...
, Berlin (1984–5); a visiting fellow at
St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economic ...
(1990); a Rockefeller fellow at the Center for Human Values,
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
(1995–6), a scholar at the
Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...
in New York (2001–2002) and Senior Fellow at the Global Law Program at NYU (2004–5). In addition, he held short-term visiting professorships at the
Central European University Central European University (CEU) is a private research university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the United States, with campuses in Vienna and Budapest. The university is known for its highly intensive programs in the social sciences and ...
in Budapest and at the
European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contribu ...
in Florence. In 1999, Margalit delivered the Horkheimer Lectures at the University of Frankfurt, on The Ethics of Memory. In 2001–2002 he delivered the inaugural lectures at Oxford University as the first Bertelsman Professor there. In 2005 he delivered the
Tanner Lectures The Tanner Lectures on Human Values is a multi-university lecture series in the humanities, founded in 1978, at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, by the American scholar Obert Clark Tanner. In founding the lecture, he defined their purpose as fol ...
at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
.


Political activity

Margalit was among the founders of the "
Moked Moked ( he, מוקד, lit. "Focus") was a left-wing political party in Israel. Background Moked came into existence during the seventh Knesset, when Maki (which had one seat, held by Shmuel Mikunis) merged with the Blue-Red Movement, which was ...
" political party in 1973 and contributed to the writing of its platform. In 1975 he participated in the founding of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, and in 1978 he belonged to the first group of leaders of Peace Now. In addition, in the 1990s Margalit served on the board of
B'Tselem B'Tselem ( he, בצלם, , " in the image of od) is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of su ...
, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.


''New York Review of Books'' contributions

Since 1984, Margalit has been a frequent contributor to the ''
New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
'' (NYRB), where he published articles on social, cultural and political issues; his political profiles included
Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
,
Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. S ...
,
Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Shamir ( he, יצחק שמיר, ; born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012) was an Israeli politician and the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms, 1983–1984 and 1986–1992. Before the establishment ...
and
Shimon Peres Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
, as well as cultural-philosophical profiles of thinkers like
Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...
,
Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism c ...
and
Yeshayahu Leibowitz Yeshayahu Leibowitz ( he, ישעיהו ליבוביץ; 29 January 1903 – 18 August 1994) was an Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath. He was a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and neurophysiology at the Hebrew ...
. A collection of his NYRB articles was published by
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
, under the title ''Views in Review: Politics and Culture in the State of the Jews'' (1998).


Academic research


Research areas and philosophical approach

Margalit's early research topics included the
philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...
and of
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
, general
analytical philosophy Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...
and the concept of rationality. Gradually he shifted toward social and
political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...
, the
philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...
and culture, and the philosophical implications of social and
cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...
. In the preface to his book ''The Ethics of Memory'', Margalit offers a distinction between "i.e. philosophy" and "e.g. philosophy". The idea is to distinguish between explicating philosophy, based on conceptual analysis, and exemplifying philosophy, which focuses on real-life examples from history or literature. Without judging between the two, Margalit adopts the second approach. Most of his work since the 1990s reflects this approach to the analysis of philosophical questions. In contrast to many in the philosophical tradition, who tend to accompany their abstract philosophical discussion with examples that are intentionally artificial or trivial, Margalit often starts from historical examples, whose richness and complexity precede their theoretical conceptualization. Through analyzing these examples he gradually builds up concepts and distinctions that serve him as the philosophical tools needed for the understanding of the phenomena he investigates. Thus, for example, in his ''Ethics of Memory'' he uses the case of an officer who forgets the name of one of his subordinate soldiers who was killed in a heroic battle, as a test-case for discussing the issue of the moral responsibility that attaches to memory, on the one hand, and of the centrality of names in constituting memory, on the other. He also poses the following dilemma: were you a painter, would you prefer your paintings to survive you after your death, even if your name will be forgotten, or would you rather have your name remembered even if none of your paintings survive. Margalit's way of philosophizing reflects historical, literary and cultural insights and concerns that are not ordinarily encountered in philosophical discussions.


''Idolatry''

Written jointly with Margalit's doctoral student Moshe Halbertal, the book ''Idolatry'' presents the history of the notion of idolatry and discusses its religious and ideological significance and ramifications. Based largely on the philosophy of language and on the philosophy of
Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrians, Austrian-British people, British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy o ...
(whom Margalit had studied for many years), the book argues that the critique of ideology finds its first expression in the critique of idolatry. Idolatry, on this view, is not just an error but a sinful error; as such it makes the idolaters miss their life's purposes. Bacon's critique of the tribal gods, and the critique of political ideology in the sense Marx used it, are shown to be the continuation of this move concerning the attitude toward the sinful and sin-causing error.


''The Decent Society''

From
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
on, political philosophy has dealt with the question of the just society, but not with the question of the decent society. In the book ''The Decent Society'', Margalit argues that the pursuit of decency, understood primarily in terms of the absence of humiliation, takes precedence over the pursuit of the ideal of justice. A decent society, in Margalit's view, is a society whose institutions do not humiliate its members. He presents the logical, moral and cognitive reasons for choosing "philosophica negativa": it is not justice that brings us to politics but injustice – the avoidance of evil rather than the pursuit of the good. In contrast to the elusiveness of the abstract notion of human dignity, the phenomenon of humiliation is tangible and instantly recognizable; so too is the notion of evil associated with it. In essence, Margalit argues that the ideal of the decent, non-humiliating society is not only more urgent but also a more realistic and achievable ideal than that of the just society. He examines the essential manifestations of the decent society: respect for privacy, full citizenship, full employment, and resisting the trend to replace mechanisms of just distribution with organs of welfare and charity. In the second part of the book Margalit gives an account of institutions that are in particular danger of generating humiliation, like prisons, the security services, the army, and the media. To a large extent because of its discussion of the idea of humiliation, Margalit's book has become a major source for the study of the notions of human dignity and human respect, which constitute the cornerstones of contemporary ethics, politics and legal theory. The book offers a deep analysis of the entire semantic field of the notions of dignity, respect, self-respect, honor, esteem, and their cognates. Margalit presents a "skeptical" solution to the question of human dignity. Rather than attempting to tie it to a particular characteristic shared by all humans and intrinsically worthy of respect (an attempt he believes has failed in the history of philosophy), Margalit proposes to turn this explanation on its head: the practice of according humans respect, he suggests, precedes the idea of human dignity as a character trait. This move does not evade the problem of human dignity, Margalit argues, but rather it points the way toward salvaging it from the futile and inconclusive metaphysical analysis.


''The Ethics of Memory''

The book ''The Ethics of Memory'' takes up the question of the duties of memory. While fundamental in the Jewish tradition, the obligation to remember ("zachor") is rarely brought up in philosophical discussions. In general, memory is not regarded as a moral concern: people remember or forget as a matter of fact, and since normally we do not control our memory, theories of ethics do not consider memory a duty. In this book, Margalit explores the evaluative and ethical dimensions of memory both in the private and in the collective spheres. The question whether we are under a moral obligation to remember (or to forget) certain things is discussed in the book in light of a central distinction Margalit introduces, between ethics and morality. Duties of memory exist, he claims, with regard to our ethical relationships, namely the "thick" relationships we have with the members of our tribe, family, nation and circle of friends – namely, those with whom we have a shared history. Without memory there is no community; memory is a constitutive element in the making of a community. Our moral relationships, on the other hand, are "thin". Morality regulates the relationships we have with others who are strangers to us and to whom nothing more concrete ties us than our shared humanity. Regarding our moral relationships, Margalit contends, there are no obligations to remember. One of Margalit's central theses in the book is that a "community of memory", as a political concept, is more significant and weighty than the notion of the nation. Memory forms a large part of our relationships, and a faulty memory damages the quality or strength of our thick relationships. In addition to the large question of the duty to remember, the book takes up a variety of other questions like what is a moral witness, what is a community of memory, how do we remember feelings (as distinct from moods), what is the proper relationship between remembering and forgetting, does remembering aid forgiving or does it rather hinder it, and more. Margalit believes that memory is the key to our ethical relationships, and that communities of memory are built upon a network of divisions of labor for the different representations of memory. These networks are constituted, in part, of particular people who remember the past and whose job it is to deal with it, like historians, archivists and journalists, and also of the idea that the large social network connects us all.


''Occidentalism: the West in the Eyes of its Enemies''

This book ''Occidentalism: the West in the Eyes of its Enemies'', written jointly with the writer and journalist
Ian Buruma Ian Buruma (born December 28, 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of ''The New York Review of Books'', but left the position in September 2018. Much of his writing has focused on ...
, originated in a 2002 article in the ''New York Review of Books''. According to the book, Occidentalism is a worldview that influences many, often conflicting, ideologies. As a view about the West and about Western civilization, it is infused with strong elements of de-humanization: the western man, on this view, is a machine-like creature. He is efficient yet soul-less, emotionally obtuse and led by a perverse value system. The book claims that the occidental worldview is itself rooted in the West. It emerges, the authors argue, out of the Romantic Movement, especially in its German version, later to be taken up by the Slavophil movement. In the 20th century it can be traced to fascism – prominently in its German and Japanese varieties – on the one hand, and to communist Maoism on the other. Nowadays it is political Islam that is thoroughly imbued with a particularly pernicious version of Occidentalism. In it, the additional idea is found, that the West, via its representatives who are currently ruling many Moslem countries, is the carrier of a new
Jahiliyya The Age of Ignorance ( ar, / , "ignorance") is an Islamic concept referring to the period of time and state of affairs in Arabia before the advent of Islam in 610 CE. It is often translated as the "Age of Ignorance". The term ''jahiliyyah'' ...
– namely, ignorance and barbarism of the sort that ruled the world before the evangelical mission of the prophet Mohamed.


''On Compromise and Rotten Compromises''

The book ''On Compromise and Rotten Compromises'' deals with political compromises: what compromises are morally acceptable and what are to be rejected as unacceptable, or "rotten". The argument of the book assigns great value to the spirit of compromise in politics, while warning against rotten ones. A rotten compromise is taken to be a compromise with a regime that exercises inhuman policies, namely systematic behavior that mixes cruelty with humiliation or and treats humans as inhuman. The book examines central historical examples, like the Great Compromise that paved the way for the
US constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...
, which accepted the institution of slavery despite its inhuman, cruel and humiliating nature. Other test cases include the
Munich agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...
and the
Yalta agreement The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
– working from the assumption that WWII is a sort of laboratory for testing out our moral-political concepts and intuitions. The forced return by the Allies of the Russian POWs to
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
's hands served in the book as a paradigm case of a rotten compromise. ''On Compromise'' focuses on the tension between peace and justice, and warns against seeing these two as complementary products, like fish and chips. The author claims that compromise is justified for the sake of peace, sometimes even at the expense of justice. Yet rotten compromises, totally unjustifiable that they are, are to be avoided come what may.


''On Betrayal''

In ''On Betrayal'', Margalit argues for and investigates the persistent significance of betrayal. He identifies four main types of betrayal, belonging to four spheres of human experience: political betrayal (treason), personal betrayal (adultery), religious betrayal (apostasy), and betrayal of one's class. The book defends the significance of the concept of betrayal even in modern societies, where treason no longer carries the weight it once did, where adultery is not a crime, and where apostasy, or changing one's religious affiliation, is considered a basic right. Building on his earlier distinction between thick and thin relations, Margalit argues that betrayal still matters because thick relations still matter and betrayal is the undermining of thick relations. "The basic claim in the book is that betrayal is betrayal of a thick human relationship. A thick human relationship comes very close to what fraternity means. So betrayal is the flip side of fraternity" (2). By Margalit's analysis, betrayal is a ternary relation, that is a relation holding between three objects. Thus the standard form of betrayal is: A betrays B with/to C. For betrayal to occur the relations between A and B must be thick relations. In cases of double betrayal, the betrayed stands in thick relations to both the betrayer and the one with whom the betrayal took place (e.g.: A betrayed B with her best friend C). Thick political relations should be based neither on blood, nor on seed, nor on soil, but on shared historical memory. They consist in "thick trust". Its breach is political betrayal, or treason. Idolatry is the betrayal of thick relations with god and apostasy of thick relations with one's religious community. Thick relations provide individuals with a sense of meaning and belonging, an orientation in the world, a home. The feature of thick relations which is eroded by betrayal is belonging, rather than trust. Belonging is not based on achievement, it is not a possession, but a bond. Betrayal undermines this bond because it "provides the betrayed party with a good reason to reevaluate the meaning of the thick relation with the betrayer" (92). But its ethical significance consists in the kind of reason it provides for this reevaluation, namely the violation of a commitment. As
Michael Walzer Michael Laban Walzer (born 1935) is an American political theorist and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor emeritus of ''Dissent'', an intellectual magazine ...
summarizes in his review of the book, "betrayal isn't leaving a relationship but breaking it––and breaking it in a way that hurts, that leaves the other or others vulnerable, frightened, alone, at a loss." However, not every case of disloyalty toward a thick relation is an instance of betrayal, only disloyalty to relations deserving of loyalty constitute betrayal. This gives rise to ambiguities and disagreements. Betrayal, Margalit says, is an essentially contested concept, "that is to say, in all its uses the concept of traitor is always subject to dispute along ideological lines" (24). When an alleged traitor is caught between two competing deserving loyalties, he will be regarded by one side as a traitor and by the other as a hero. When one of the loyalties is morally undeserved, the actor is either an uncontestable hero (
Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
is an example) or an uncontestable traitor (e.g.
Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...
). Assessments of deservedness can vary not only across societies, but also within societies. This is often the case with whistleblowers, like
Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
and
Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning; December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage A ...
, seen by some as heroes and by others as traitors. The difference between a traitor worthy of contempt and a whistleblower worthy of applause, Margalit says, consists in the righteousness of their cause and the purity of their motives. The fact that both can be mixed and ambiguous explains why public opinion is often split in such cases. Besides the four general kinds of betrayal, the book explores specific forms of potential betrayal, including collaboration with an enemy, class betrayal, secrecy and hypocrisy. It investigates with nuance complicated historical cases like
Josephus Flavius Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
,
Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
, and
Marshal Petain Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used f ...
("Petain betrayed by trying to form a France that would eradicate the memory and the legacy of the French Revolution" (215)).


Awards

* In December 2001, Margalit received the Spinoza Lens Prize, awarded by the International Spinoza Foundation for "a significant contribution to the normative debate on society." * In November 2007, he received the
EMET Prize The EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture is an Israeli prize awarded annually for excellence in academic and professional achievements that have far-reaching influence and make a significant contribution to society. Prizes are awarded in the fol ...
, awarded annually by the Prime Minister of Israel for "excellence in academic and professional achievements that have far reaching influence and significant contribution to society." * In April 2010, he was awarded
Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...
, for philosophy. * In May 2011 he was awarded the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize. of the
University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...
* In 2011 he was elected to the Israel Arts and Science Academy. * He was elected as honorary associate at Queens College at Oxford University. * In May 2012 he receives Philosophical Book Award 2012 by FIPH. * In September 2012 he received the Ernst Bloch Prize. He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 2018.


Family

Avishai Margalit was married to Edna Ullmann-Margalit, a professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University. She died in October 2010. He has four children and lives in Jerusalem.


Publications


Books

* Idolatry (jointly with Moshe Halbertal), Harvard University Press, 1992. * The Decent Society, Harvard University Press, 1996. * Views in Review: Politics and Culture in the State of the Jews, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998. * The Ethics of Memory, Harvard University Press, 2002. (A partial German version of this book, Ethik der Erinnerung, was published by Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag in 2000.) * Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (with
Ian Buruma Ian Buruma (born December 28, 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of ''The New York Review of Books'', but left the position in September 2018. Much of his writing has focused on ...
), New York: The Penguin Press, 2004. * On Compromise And Rotten Compromises, Princeton University Press, 2010 * On Betrayal, Harvard University Press, 2017


Books edited

* Meaning and Use, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland 1979. * Isaiah Berlin: A Celebration (jointly with Edna Ullmann-Margalit), The Hogarth Press, 1991. * Amnestie (jointly with Garry Smith), Suhrkamp Verlag, 1998.


Selected articles


Philosophy of language

* "Vagueness in Vogue", Synthese, Vol. 33, 1976, pp. 211–221. * "The 'Platitude' Principle of Semantics", Erkenntnis, Vol. 13, 1978, pp. 377–395. * "Open Texture", in: Avishai Margalit (ed.), Meaning and Use, D. Reidel / Dordrecht-Holland, 1979, pp. 141–152. * "Sense and Science", in: S. Saarinen, R. Hilpinen, I Niiniluoto and Provence Hintikka (eds.), Essays in Honor of Jaakko Hintikka, D. Reidel / Dordrecht-Holland, 1979, pp. 17–47. * "Meaning and Monsters", Synthese 44, 1980, pp. 313–346. * "Analyticity by way of Presumption" (jointly with Edna Ullmann-Margalit), Canadian Journal of Philosophy 12:3 (1980), pp. 435–452.


Logic and rationality

* "Newcomb's Problem Revisited" (jointly with M. Bar-Hillel), British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 23, 1972, pp. 295–304. * "The Irrational, the Unreasonable, and the Wrong" (jointly with M. Bar-Hillel), Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1981. * "Gideon's Paradox – a Paradox of Rationality" (jointly with M. Bar-Hillel), Synthese, Vol. 63, 1985, pp. 139–155. * "How Vicious are Cycles of Intransitive Choice?" (jointly with M. Bar-Hillel), Theory and Decision, Vol. 24, 1988, pp. 119–145. * "Holding True and Holding as True" (jointly with Edna Ullmann-Margalit), Synthese, Vol. 92, 1992, pp. 167–187. * "Rationality and Comprehension" (jointly with Menachem Yaari), in: Kenneth J. Arrow, Enrico Colombatto, Mark Perlman and Christian Schmidt, The Rational Foundations of Economic Behavior, MacMillan Press, 1996, pp. 89–101.


Ethics and politics

* "National Self-Determination" (jointly with Joseph Raz), The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 87, 1990, pp. 439–461. * "Liberalism and the Right to Culture" (jointly with Moshe Halbertal), Social Research, Vol. 61, 1994, pp. 491–510. * "The Uniqueness of the Holocaust" (jointly with Gabriel Motzkin), Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 25, 1996, 65–83. * "Decent Equality and Freedom", Social Research Vol. 64, 1997, pp. 147–160. (The entire spring issue of this volume is dedicated to Margalit's The Decent Society). * "Recognition", Supplement to the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. 7, July 2001, pp 127–139. * "The Lesser Evil", London: Proceedings of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, 2004. * "Sectarianism", Dissent, Winter 2008.


See also

*
List of Israel Prize recipients This is a complete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 through to 2022. List For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize ...


References


External links


(links to 30 NYRB articles by Avishai Margalit)

(home page at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)

(CUNY Radio Podcasts, December 4th, 2007: Avishai Margalit on Sectarianism)

Biography in Emet Prize site

(Emet Prize interview; in Hebrew)
*
Galen Strawson Galen John Strawson (born 1952) is a British analytic philosopher and literary critic who works primarily on philosophy of mind, metaphysics (including free will, panpsychism, the mind-body problem, and the self), John Locke, David Hume, Imman ...

Blood and memory, review article on Margalit's books The Ethics of Memory
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 4 January 2003 * Robert Irwin
Occidentalism by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
, 10 September 2004
The Ethics of Memory
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

Interview with Avishai Margalit "Any ideology that fails to engage with our psychology is doomed to failure"
in
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, July 2009
Video: The Paradox of Religions – Avishai Margalit interviewed by Reset-Dialogues on CivilizationsVideo: Between Apostasy and Loyalty in Judaism – Avishai Margalit interviewed by Reset – Dialogues on Civilizations
*
Michael Walzer Michael Laban Walzer (born 1935) is an American political theorist and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor emeritus of ''Dissent'', an intellectual magazine ...

Does Betrayal Still Matter, review article on Margalit's book On Betrayal
The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
, 11 May 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Margalit, Avishai 1939 births Living people Israeli Jews People from Jerusalem Israeli philosophers Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Institute for Advanced Study faculty Israel Prize in philosophy recipients Members of the American Philosophical Society B'Tselem people