School of thought
Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Tradition
Classification
- Period
- c. 900-1450 CE
- Regions
- middle east, europe
- Domains
- Epistemology , Philosophy of Religion
Overview
From around 900 into the fifteenth century, Jewish thinkers in Islamic and Christian lands developed varied philosophical accounts of Judaism. They drew on Jewish scripture and rabbinic traditions while engaging Islamic theology, Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, and, later, Christian Scholasticism. Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, Maimonides, Gersonides, and Hasdai Crescas did not offer one settled synthesis: they disagreed about the reach of reason, the language used of God, creation, prophecy, providence, and divine law.
Key ideas
- Reason and Revelation: Medieval Jewish philosophers disputed how far philosophical demonstration could interpret scripture and religious law. Maimonides defended their compatibility when each was properly understood, while other thinkers placed different limits on reason's authority.
- Language about God: Maimonides's negative theology held that positive descriptions cannot state God's essence; his account was one influential contribution to a wider medieval debate about divine attributes.
- Prophecy, Providence, and Law: The tradition used philosophical arguments to examine prophecy, divine knowledge and care, human freedom, and the relationship between divine and human law.
Key figures
Saadia Gaon · Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon) · Judah Halevi · Gersonides · Hasdai Crescas
Methods used
Influenced by
- Peripatetic School
Maimonides used Aristotelian logic and metaphysics to reinterpret Scripture, reconciling revelation with demonstrative reason in the Guide of the Perplexed.
- Medieval Islamic Philosophy
Later connections
- Kabbalah Influenced by this tradition
- Scholasticism Influenced by this tradition
Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed shaped Aquinas's handling of faith and reason and of proofs for God's existence.
- Spinozism Influenced by this tradition
Spinoza studied Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed closely, absorbing its rationalist theology even as he pushed past it to identify God with Nature.
References
- Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Maimonides
- Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, I.1–49
- Guide for the Perplexed — Maimonides (trans. Shlomo Pines)
- The Kuzari — Judah Halevi