Quest for Life: A Study in Aharon David Gordon’s Philosophy of Man in Nature

Quest for Life: A Study in Aharon David Gordon's Philosophy of Man in Nature is a study of the life and work of one of the most interesting, original and creative Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. Among its various goals, this work is intended to familiarize the English reading public with Gordon's philosophy, which was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the Land of Israel, in Hebrew. Following previous scholarship, it demonstrates the role played by the experience of the pioneering community in Israel in the early 1900s in the development of Gordon's thought. But it intends, even beyond this particular historical context, to examine its repercussions with respect to contemporary civilization. In this context, the present work suggests the "quest for life," embedded in the philosophical writings of labor pioneer and philosopher Aharon David Gordon, as the basis for a possible re-evaluation of such topics as the meaning of human life, Jewish peoplehood and alternative approaches to the idea of a Jewish homeland and the State of Israel.