Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed: A Philosophical Guide - Hardcover

Ivry, Alfred L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022639512X ISBN 13: 9780226395128

Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

A classic of medieval Jewish philosophy, Maimonides&;s Guide of the Perplexed is as influential as it is difficult and demanding. Not only does the work contain contrary&;even contradictory&;statements, but Maimonides deliberately wrote in a guarded and dissembling manner in order to convey different meanings to different readers, with the knowledge that many would resist his bold reformulations of God and his relation to mankind. As a result, for all the acclaim the Guide has received, comprehension of it has been unattainable to all but a few in every generation.

Drawing on a lifetime of study, Alfred L. Ivry has written the definitive guide to the Guide&;one that makes it comprehensible and exciting to even those relatively unacquainted with Maimonides&; thought, while also offering an original and provocative interpretation that will command the interest of scholars. Ivry offers a chapter-by-chapter exposition of the widely accepted Shlomo Pines translation of the text along with a clear paraphrase that clarifies the key terms and concepts. Corresponding analyses take readers more deeply into the text, exploring the philosophical issues it raises, many dealing with metaphysics in both its ontological and epistemic aspects.
 

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Alfred L. Ivry is professor emeritus in the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. He is the author, editor, or translator of nine books. Most recently, he edited Averroes&;s Middle Commentary on Aristotle&;s &;De Anima&; in both Arabic and Hebrew critical editions, as well as supplying an English-language translation.
 

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed

A Philosophical Guide

By Alfred L. Ivry

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2016 The University of Chicago
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-226-39512-8

Contents

Preface, 
Introduction, 
Background, 
1 A Concise Biography, 
2 The Mishneh Torah, 
3 Maimonides' Graeco-Islamic Philosophical Heritage, 
4 Wrestling with Language (Guide I, Introduction and Chapters 1–68), 
5 Kalam Claims and Counterclaims (Guide I, Chapters 69–76), 
6 Philosophy Affirmed and Qualified; Creation (Guide II, Introduction and Chapters 1–31), 
7 Prophecy (Guide II, Chapters 32–48), 
8 The Metaphysics of the Chariot (Guide III, Introduction and Chapters 1–7), 
9 Providence and (Apparent) Evil (Guide III, Chapters 8–25), 
10 Rationalizing the Law (Guide III, Chapters 26–50), 
11 True Knowledge and Perfection (Guide III, Chapters 51–54), 
Conclusion, 
Notes, 
Additional Recommended Readings, 
Bibliography, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

A Concise Biography

Maimonides was born in 1138 in Cordoba, Spain, which was then part of the Almoravid empire. The Almoravids were Moors from North Africa who originally invaded Spain with the declared intention to establish a more strict observance of Islam among the faithful. This led them to attempt to rid the country of Jews and Christians, formerly tolerated as fellow monotheists. Those who persisted in their original belief were persecuted and ostensibly had to choose between exile and apostasy. Maimonides' father, Maimun ben Joseph, a leader of the community, wrote a "Letter of Consolation" urging his fellow Jews to observe as much of the Law as possible, even if it had to be kept secretly. It may be inferred from this that many Jews chose to remain in Spain and publicly professed allegiance to Islam, while privately retaining their ancestral faith.

In 1148 the Almohads, another Berber group from the Atlas Mountains, overran Andalusia with the same rationale as the Almoravids, the latter's religious zeal ostensibly gone lax. The Almohad rulers again forced non-Muslims either to convert or to leave the country without their possessions. Many in the Jewish community again chose a third way, that of dissembling their allegiance to the Prophet of Islam. It is possible that Maimonides' father chose this path, for we hear nothing of him or his children for twelve long years, despite his position of leadership in the Jewish community. When they emerge it is in Fez, the Almohad capital, so it is likely they passed as Muslims for that period of time, a period in which Maimonides concentrated on his studies, mastering the texts of both the Jewish religious tradition and the Graeco-Muslim philosophical and scientific tradition.

An early indication of Maimonides' absorption in philosophy is to be found in his Treatise on the Art of Logic, a handbook of key terms and definitions that form the basis for scientific reasoning. Maimonides' information is taken from the treatises on Aristotelian logic compiled by Alfarabi, the Muslim philosopher whom Maimonides most admired. Maimonides writes allegedly at the request of a traditionally educated but philosophically innocent patron, apparently Muslim, who wishes to have the technical language, categories, and divisions of logic briefly explained to him.

Herbert Davidson has challenged the claim that Maimonides wrote this treatise, both because his name does not appear on some extant early manuscripts, and because in one place the author brings Moses and Jesus into a temporal relationship in order to exemplify a logical point. Now, while the Jew Maimonides might not have chosen to adduce the Christian messiah as an appropriate figure in a treatise intended for a Jewish reader, as Davidson argues, a dissimulating Muslim Maimonides would not have had to be that sensitive, especially for a Muslim reader. Nothing else is decisively Jewish, or Muslim, in this treatise. It is thus highly likely that Maimonides composed the treatise in Spain or the Maghreb, while posing as a Muslim.

Another early work, written in 1157–58 while Maimonides was still somewhere in Andalusia, is a treatise on the calendar, intended to assist people in understanding the vagaries of the rabbinically calculated lunar year. Maimonides here shows an early grasp of mathematics and astronomy that he was to expand upon in the chapter "Laws of the Sanctification of the Moon" in his law code, the Mishneh Torah.

At the time of his initial scientific forays in print, Maimonides was also absorbed in writing preliminary commentaries on portions of both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. As well, he began then to comment on the Mishnah, a neglected text usually subsumed within commentaries that focus more on the later talmudic stratum of the Gemara.

The first major public statement that Maimonides put his name and Jewish identity to is "Letter on Apostasy" (Iggeret ha-Shemad), also known as "Treatise on Martyrdom" (Ma'amar Qiddush ha-Shem), which he wrote while still in Fez. In it he assured those of his co-religionists who had "converted" to Islam that they would be welcomed back to Judaism if they chose to return. He urged that they should make every effort to do so, though it meant leaving their homes and wealth.

Maimonides wrote in response to a French rabbi's more severe, though legally/halachically correct, edict that ruled against those who committed apostasy (however nominally), denying them the right of return. This put those who wished to remain Jewish in Spain in the position of having to accept martyrdom, should they be put to the test.

In his statement, Maimonides implies that the reality of life under the Almohads is not what it might seem to an outsider, that after their Islamic "confession of faith," the Shahada, nothing further is asked of the Jews, and they are able to pursue their own religion discreetly. In a highly daring and innovative ruling, Maimonides distinguished speech acts from other actions that testify to the adoption of another faith, claiming that these oral confessions are understood by everyone to be disingenuous and hence do not sever the individual's tie to his ancestral faith. In so writing, Maimonides may be seen as following his father's pragmatic approach in responding to threats to Jewish survival, bending the law to accommodate a frightening reality.

It is not surprising that having gone public in a matter that required discretion, Maimonides with his family — father, brother, and presumably mother and sister (or sisters) — soon thereafter emigrated from the lands of Almohad rule. They traveled east, first sailing to Palestine and then overland to Egypt. In leaving the land of Israel after having set foot in it, and in settling in Egypt, Maimonides violated injunctions that he was to endorse later in the Mishneh Torah, not the first or last inconsistency life and his public responsibilities demanded of him.

The Maimon family's departure from the Holy Land, after brief visits to Jerusalem and Hebron, was a realistic decision, given the bleak economic and social conditions of the small and impoverished Jewish community in Palestine and the political turmoil and danger there caused by the ongoing fighting between Crusaders and Saracens. By contrast, Egypt was home to a sizable Jewish community that benefited from a long-standing, relatively tolerant Fatimid regime. The safety of the Jewish...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Chicago Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 022639512X
• ISBN 13: 9780226395128
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 307
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: The University of Chicago Press; https://press.uchicago.edu/index.html; ; 5801 S. Ellis Avenue; Chicago; IL; 60637; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar