An Examination of the Singular in Maimonides and Spinoza
An Examination of the Singular in Maimonides and Spinoza

Author: Norman L. Whitman

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-08-14

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 3030494721

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This book presents an alternative reading of the respective works of Moses Maimonides and Baruch Spinoza. It argues that both thinkers are primarily concerned with the singular perfection of the complete human being rather than with attaining only rational knowledge. Complete perfection of a human being expresses the unique concord of concrete activities, such as ethics, politics, and psychology, with reason. The necessity of concrete historical activities in generating perfection entails that both thinkers are not primarily concerned with an “escape” to a metaphysical realm of transcendent or universal truths via cognition. Instead, both are focused on developing and cultivating individuals’ concrete desires and activities to the potential benefit of all. This book argues that rather than solely focusing on individual enlightenment, both thinkers are primarily concerned with a political life and the improvement of fellow citizens’ capacities. A key theme throughout the text is that both Maimonides and Spinoza realize that an apolitical life undermines individual and social flourishing.

Maimonides and Spinoza
Maimonides and Spinoza

Author: Joshua Parens

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-08

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 0226645746

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This is a revision of predominant understanding of the philosophers Maimonides and Spinoza. It was agreed that Maimonides was a great defender of Judaism, and Spinoza an Enlightenment advocate for secularization. A new scholarly consensus has recently emerged that the teachings of the two philosophers were in fact much closer than was thought.

Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies. 2019
Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies. 2019

Author: Yoav Meyrav

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 3110618834

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The Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies mirrors the annual activities of staff and visiting fellows of the Centre as well as scholars of the Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion at the University of Hamburg and reports on symposia, workshops, and lectures. Although aimed at a wider audience, the yearbook also contains academic articles and book reviews on scepticism in Judaism and scepticism in general. The Yearbook 2016 was published as volume 1 in the series Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Religion. From 2017 onwards, the Yearbook is published as a separate series. Further book series of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies are Studies and Texts in Scepticism and Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Religion.

Spinoza
Spinoza

Author: Ivan Segré

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-02-09

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1472596447

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Spinoza is among the most controversial and asymmetrical thinkers in the tradition and history of modern European philosophy. Since the 17th century, his work has aroused some of the fiercest and most intense polemics in the discipline. From his expulsion from the synagogue and onwards, Spinoza has never ceased to embody the secular, heretical and self-loathing Jew. Ivan Segré, a philosopher and celebrated scholar of the Talmud, discloses the conservative underpinnings that have animated Spinoza's numerable critics and antagonists. Through a close reading of Leo Strauss and several contemporary Jewish thinkers, such as Jean-Claude Milner and Benny Levy (Sartre's last secretary), Spinoza: the Ethics of an Outlaw aptly delineates the common cause of Spinoza's contemporary censors: an explicit hatred of reason and its emancipatory potential. Spinoza's radical heresy lies in his rejection of any and all blind adherence to Biblical Law, and in his plea for the freedom and autonomy of thought. Segré reclaims Spinoza as a faithful interpreter of the revolutionary potential contained within the Old Testament.

Spinoza and Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Spinoza and Medieval Jewish Philosophy

Author: Steven Nadler

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-12-04

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1316194620

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Over the last two decades there has been an increasing interest in the influence of medieval Jewish thought upon Spinoza's philosophy. The essays in this volume, by Spinoza specialists and leading scholars in the field of medieval Jewish philosophy, consider the various dimensions of the rich, important, but vastly under-studied relationship between Spinoza and earlier Jewish thinkers. It is the first such collection in any language, and together the essays provide a detailed and extensive analysis of how different elements in Spinoza's metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political and religious thought relate to the views of his Jewish philosophical forebears, such as Maimonides, Gersonides, Ibn Ezra, Crescas, and others. The topics addressed include the immortality of the soul, the nature of God, the intellectual love of God, moral luck, the nature of happiness, determinism and free will, the interpretation of Scripture, and the politics of religion.