Asa Kasher (; born June 6, 1940) is an Israeli

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

working as a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

. He is the lead author of the IDF Code of Ethics.

Biography

Asa Kasher is the grandson of talmudist Menachem Mendel Kasher. He is noted for authorship of

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

Code of Conduct A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norm, norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization. Companies' codes of conduct A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is comm ...

, as well as his co-authorship of an amended version of the controversial Hannibal Directive in the 1990s. Kasher has also written an influential defense of Israel's '

law of return The Law of Return (, ''ḥok ha-shvūt'') is an Israeli law, passed on 5 July 1950, which gives Jews, people with one or more Jewish grandparent, and their spouses the right to Aliyah, relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli nationality law, Isra ...

', justifying it as a form of affirmative action, following periods in which Jews were not allowed to immigrate to many countries. He also wrote about possible meanings to a Jewish and democratic state, the meaning of a Jewish collective and many other essays. His essays on Jewish subjects are collected in a book titled ''Ruach Ish'' (''Spirit of a Man''), published in Hebrew by

Am Oved Am Oved ("A Working People") is an Israeli publishing house. History Am Oved was founded in 1942 by Berl Katznelson, who was its first editor in chief. It was created as an organ of the Histadrut, Israel's federation of Labor, with a goal of publ ...

publication house. He is also the editor-in-chief of the philosophy journal '' Philosophia''. Kasher has contributed as well to the fields of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

Awards and recognition

In 2000, Kasher was awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

for philosophy.

Criticism

Uri Avnery Uri Avnery (, also transliterated Uri Avneri; 10 September 1923 – 20 August 2018) was a German-born Israeli writer, journalist, politician, and activist, who founded the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager and a vet ...

criticised Kasher for arguing in favour of

targeted killing Targeted killing is a form of assassination carried out by governments Extrajudicial killing, outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield. Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention wit ...

by the IDF, in those cases in which it knowingly fires on targets where civilians are present or nearby if enemy forces are also known to be present, and that "it is justified to kill a Palestinian child who is in the company of a hundred 'terrorists'" because the terrorists might kill children. Kasher was also criticized in his role as Editor-in-Chief of the philosophy journal Philosophia, which published and later retracted an article by Kevin MacDonald, titled “The ‘Default Hypothesis’ Fails to Explain Jewish Influence”. The article was criticized as promoting

anti-semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

tropes, and questions were raised about the peer review process for the paper, particularly after one of the paper's referees announced himself on twitter and he appeared to lack the requisite qualifications to referee papers for the journal.

Springer Publishing Springer Publishing Company is an American publishing company of academic journals and books, focusing on the fields of nursing, gerontology, psychology, social work, counseling, public health, and rehabilitation (neuropsychology). It was estab ...

undertook an investigation and retracted the paper. Kasher eventually resigned as editor of Philosophia.

References

External links

Asa Kasher's Homepage at TAU
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kasher, Asa Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Living people Israeli Jews Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Israel Prize in philosophy recipients 1940 births Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Israeli ethicists Israeli philosophers

Biography

Awards and recognition

Criticism

See also

References

External links