Rosenzweig expects our thinking to offer consolation and redemption of suffering; Levinas calls for philosophy as prophetic witness to my suffering undergone for others; and Cohen requires philosophy to contribute to recasting the economic relations in society.
My temptation is to say that philosophy must do all three things....If one says that philosophy as such happens as discourse, and so has its task in prophetic witness (the interpretation of what responsible discourse does), then one could also say that discourse as such can itself become both consolation and critique.
Robert Gibbs, "Unjustifiable Suffering," Suffering Religion, p. 35. The article from which this comes is a beautiful article, by the way; highly recommended.
