Isaak Benrubi (24 May 1876 in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

– October 19 1943 in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

) was a philosopher from the Ottoman city of Thessaloniki, he opposed the conventional character of the act of knowing in "subject" and "object" to the reality that is interested in both subject and object: ''"I can't exist without the universe, neither can the universe exist without me".'' He decided to attend the

CIC CIC may refer to: Organizations Canada * Cadet Instructors Cadre, a part of the Canadian Armed Forces * Canadian Infantry Corps, renamed in 1947 to Royal Canadian Infantry Corps * Canadian International Council * Canadian Islamic Congress * Chemi ...

's meeting in

only after learning that both

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

and

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson

would also be attending.

Biography

Benrubi was born in

, Ottoman Empire, in 1876. He came from an old family of

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

s, from the same

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community of

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

provenance, to which

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 ...

belonged to in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. He presented his thesis in German, under the direction of the great philosopher Eucken, on the "Moral ideal of J.J. Rousseau" (1904). According to Benrubi, Rousseau is the source of all German philosophy- from

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...

- and the spiritual father of the great poets

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

, and Holderlin. He studied philosophy and was educated in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, Berlin, and Paris (1898–1914). In 1904, he participated in the 2nd Congress of Philosophy in

, where he stayed, teaching the history of European philosophy until his death. Between 1927 and 1933 he was appointed by the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Government to teach French philosophy at

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, a job that he considered as a cultural mission for fostering the intellectual ties between France and Germany. In his work Benrubi tries to go beyond the agnosticism and timidity of modern philosophical reflection, to re-establish the bridge between the Self and the things, to abolish the dualism of speculative and practical thinking. The author attempts to exhibit the universe as a whole: terrestrial unity, solidarity of the living, the existence of a human race, united in its diversity, arriving in conclusion at a moral: Natural obligation of cosmic and human solidarity. In a second work, Benrubi studied at depth the great movements of moral philosophy in a manuscript of more than 600 pages, that is archived at the

Bibliothèque de Genève The Bibliothèque de Genève (BGE, English: Geneva Library, Library of Geneva), founded in 1559, was known as ''Bibliothèque publique et universitaire'' (BPU, English: Public and University Library) from 1907 to 2006. It occupies different build ...

, in which the essential ideas of the sceptics, relativists and utilitarians are analyzed in detail and compared - from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Sophists A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...

Max Stirner Johann Kaspar Schmidt (25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856), known professionally as Max Stirner, was a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly with the Hegelian notion of social alienation and self-consciousness. Stirner is often seen a ...

and

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, psychologist, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest" ...

, passing through

Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pa ...

, La Rochefoucauld, and Helvétius, among others (J. H. Zeilberger).

Works

* ''J. J.

Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

s ethisches Ideal'', 1904 * ''Contemporary thought of France'', 1926 * ''Philosophische Strömungen der Gegenwart in Frankreich'', 1928 * ''Les sources et les courants de la philosophie contemporaine en France'', 1933 * ''Souvenirs sur Henri Bergson'', Delachaux & Niestlé, Neuchâtel, 1942

References

* S. H. Bergmann, entry in ''

Encyclopedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a 22-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, langua ...

'', IV, Jerusalem, p. 546. * H. Reverdin, "Isaac Benrubi" in ''Annales de la Societe'' J.J. Rousseau, 1943. * J. H. Zeilberger,
Isaac Benrubi, Juif fidele, patriot genevois, cosmopolite fervent
, manuscript deposited at the Bibliothèque Public et Universitaire de Genève, 1981. (Cote BPU BVM 282). {{DEFAULTSORT:Benrubi, Isaak 1876 births 1943 deaths German Sephardi Jews German people of Greek descent German people of Portuguese descent Greek people of Portuguese descent Greek Sephardi Jews Jewish philosophers Jews from Thessaloniki Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Germany