Maimonides and Philosophy

In the year 1985, presumed to mark the 850th anniversary of Maimonides' birth, the Sixth Jerusalem Philosophical Encounter was dedicated to Maim onides as philosopher. We did not enter into the other aspects of his work, rabbinical, legal, medical, etc., except in so far as the relation between his philosophy and his work in halakha (Jewish law) is itself a philosophical question. That no one is quite certain about Maimonides' date of birth is symbolic of the state of his philosophy as well. Maimonides' thought poses various enigmas, lends itself to contradictory interpretations and gives rise today, as it did in the Middle Ages, to sustained controversies. Some of the contribu tions to the present volume deal with these and cognate topics. Others deal with certain aspects of the philosophical tradition in which Maimonides was rooted, with some traits peculiar to the Islamic society in the midst of which he lived, and with his influence on Christian scholasticism. Maimonides' thought had many facets, and for this and other reasons the question as to his place and stature in the history of philosophy admits of no simple answer. In this volume an attempt has been made to draw atten tion to some of these complexities.

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Papers Presented at the Sixth Jerusalem Philosophical Encounter, May 1985

Contenu
I. Philosophical Issues in Maimonides.- The Philosophical Purport of Maimonides' Halachic Works and the Purport of The Guide of the Perplexed.- Rationality and Revelation in Maimonides' Thought.- Maimonides' True Belief Concerning God.- Remarks on Maimonides' Epistemology.- Aristotle on Eternity: Does Maimonides Have a Reply?.- The Creation of the World and Maimonides' Interpretation of Gen i-v.- Sitre 'Arayot in Maimonides' Thought.- The Idea of a Hoq in Maimonides' Explanation of the Law.- Ethics and Meta-Ethics, Aesthetics and Meta-Aesthetics in Maimonides.- II. The Greco-Arabic Philosophical Context.- Islamic and Greek Influences on Maimonides' Philosophy.- Maimonides on Causality.- Songe et prophétie chez Maïmonide et dans la tradition philosophique qui l'inspira.- Prophecy in al-Farabi and Maimonides.- Aspects of Ibn Bajja's Theory of Apprehension.- Maimonides and Averroes on the First Mover.- III. Maimonides' Ideas: Attitudes and Interpretations.- Maimonides and Latin Scholasticism.- Are the Founders of Religions Impostors?.- Leo Strauss et Maïmonide.- God's Transcendence and its Schematization.