The Creation of the World According to Gersonides

The Creation of the World According to Gersonides PDF Author: Jacob J. Staub
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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The Creation of the World According to Gersonides

The Creation of the World According to Gersonides PDF Author: Jacob J. Staub
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description


Gersonides on Providence, Covenant, and the Chosen People

Gersonides on Providence, Covenant, and the Chosen People PDF Author: Robert Eisen
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791423134
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This is a careful examination of the doctrine of Jewish chosenness in the light of Gersonides's thought on providential suffering and on inherited providence. Gersonides is one of the most interesting and important philosophers of the later Jewish Middle Ages.

Studies on Gersonides

Studies on Gersonides PDF Author: Gad Freudenthal
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004625739
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
R. Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides, 1288-1344) is one of the greatest and most original figures of Medieval Jewish thought. He wrote numerous works in philosophy, science and biblical exegesis. Some of his scientific works, most notably his highly innovative Astronomy, were translated from Hebrew into Latin and could thus reach non-Jewish scholars. The twelve studies collected in this bilingual volume (English and French in equal parts) offer for the first time a comprehensive overview and assessment of Gersonides' work in astronomy, mathematics, logic, natural science, and psychology. Gersonides' contributions are analyzed within the context of contemporary philosophy and science in Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin. New light is also shed on the reception of Gersonides' work within European science. The volume includes a very extensive bibliography of writings by and about Gersonides. From the contents: Part I: Gersonides' Astronomy: Bernard R. Goldstein, José Luis Mancha, José Chabas, Henri Hugonnard-Roche, Guy Beaujouan. Part II: Gersonides' Work in Mathematics: Tony Lévy, Karine Chemla, Serge Pahaut. Part III: Gersonides' Science in Its Relations to His Philosophy and Theology: Herbert A. Davidson, Tzvi Y. Langermann, Charles H. Manekin, Amos Funkenstein, Gad Freudenthal.

Gersonides

Gersonides PDF Author: Seymour Feldman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781906764784
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Gersonides (1288-1344), known also as Ralbag, was a philosopher of the first rank as well as an astronomer and biblical exegete, yet this is the first English-language study of the significance of his work for Jewish thought. Seymour Feldman, the acclaimed translator of Gersonides' most important work, The Wars of the Lord - a complete philosophical system and astronomical encyclopedia - has written a comprehensive picture of Gersonides' philosophy that is both descriptive and evaluative. Unusually for a Jewish scholar, Gersonides had contacts with several Christian notables and scholars. It is known that these related to mathematical and astronomical matters; the extent to which these contacts also influenced his philosophical thought is a matter of some controversy. Unquestionably, however, he wrote a veritable library of philosophical, scientific, and exegetical works that testify not only to the range of his intellectual concerns but also to his attempt to forge a philosophical-scientific synthesis between these secular sciences and Judaism. Unlike many modern scientists or philosophers, who either scorn religion or compartmentalize it, he did not see any fundamental discrepancy between the pursuit of truth via reason and its attainment through divine revelation: there is only one truth, with which both reason and revelation must agree. As a philosopher-scientist and biblical exegete Gersonides sought to make this agreement robustly evident. While philosophical and scientific ideas have progressed since Gersonides' time, his work is still relevant today because his attempt to make prophecy and miracles understandable in terms of some commonly held philosophical or scientific theory is paradigmatic of a religion that is not afraid of reason. His general principle that reason should function as a 'control' of what we believe has interesting and important implications for the modern reader. Indeed, some of his basic arguments are favoured by many contemporary thinkers who attempt to incorporate modern science into their religious belief system. He was not afraid to make religious beliefs philosophically and scientifically credible; one could say that he pursued an 'ethics of belief' in that he held that there are constraints to what is believable, especially in religion. In this respect he was a precursor of Kant and Hermann Cohen: Judaism is or should be a religion of reason.

Gersonides

Gersonides PDF Author: Seymour Feldman
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1789624800
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
The philosopher, astronomer, and biblical exegete known both as Gersonides and Ralbag (1288-1344) wrote a veritable library of works that testify not only to the breadth of his intellectual concerns but to his attempt to forge a synthesis between the secular sciences and Judaism. This is the first English-language study to assess his place and significance for Jewish thought, and it offers a comprehensive picture of his philosophy that is both descriptive and evaluative.

Spinoza's Heresy

Spinoza's Heresy PDF Author: Steven Nadler
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191529974
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
At the heart of Spinoza's Heresy is a mystery: why was Baruch Spinoza so harshly excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community at the age of twenty-four? In this philosophical sequel to his acclaimed, award-winning biography of the seventeenth-century thinker, Steven Nadler argues that Spinoza's main offence was a denial of the immortality of the soul. But this only deepens the mystery. For there is no specific Jewish dogma regarding immortality: there is nothing that a Jew is required to believe about the soul and the afterlife. It was, however, for various religious, historical and political reasons, simply the wrong issue to pick on in Amsterdam in the 1650s. After considering the nature of the ban, or cherem, as a disciplinary tool in the Sephardic community, and a number of possible explanations for Spinoza's ban, Nadler turns to the variety of traditions in Jewish religious thought on the postmortem fate of a person's soul. This is followed by an examination of Spinoza's own views on the eternity of the mind and the role that that the denial of personal immortality plays in his overall philosophical project. Nadler argues that Spinoza's beliefs were not only an outgrowth of his own metaphysical principles, but also a culmination of an intellectualist trend in Jewish rationalism.

Gersonides' Afterlife

Gersonides' Afterlife PDF Author: Ofer Elior
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004425284
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 691

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Book Description
Gersonides’ Afterlife is the first full-scale treatment of the reception of one of the greatest scientific minds of medieval Judaism: the philosopher-scientist Levi ben Gershom (1288–1344). The papers collected here describe his multifarious impact from the fourteenth century to present-day religious Zionism.

Torah in the Observatory

Torah in the Observatory PDF Author: Menachem Marc Kellner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
by Gersonides: Providence, Mosaic Prophecy, Miracles, the Messiah and Resurrection, Astronomy and Metaphysics, Politics and Perfection. It is not by chance that Menachem Kellner has devoted so much to the study of Gersonides. Like Gersonides, Kellner has firmly in hand the knowledge of the Bible and of the traditional literature of Judaism, he is well trained in philosophy and science, and his broad interests make him the best and most penetrating champion of a great philosopher and an outstanding student of human thought. Colette Sirat, directeur d'etudes a l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Sorbonne et chercheur associe a l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes --Book Jacket.

Medieval Jewish Philosophical Writings

Medieval Jewish Philosophical Writings PDF Author: Charles Manekin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139467557
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Medieval Jewish intellectuals living in Muslim and Christian lands were strongly concerned to recover what they regarded as a 'lost' Jewish philosophical tradition. As part of this project they transmitted and produced many philosophical and scientific works and commentaries, as well as philosophical commentary on scripture, in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew, the principal literary languages of medieval Jewry. This volume presents translations of seven prominent medieval Jewish rationalists: Saadia Gaon, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses Maimonides, Isaac Albalag, Moses of Narbonne, Levi Gersonides, Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo - including, for the first time in English, the complete Falaquera abridgement of Gabirol's Source of Life. These works range over topics that are both theological (e.g. the creation of the world) and philosophical (e.g. determinism and free choice), but they are characterized by two overarching principles: the unity of truth, and its accessibility to human reason.

Judaism and the Doctrine of Creation

Judaism and the Doctrine of Creation PDF Author: Norbert M. Samuelson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521452147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
The topic of this book is 'creation'. It breaks down into discussions of two distinct, but interrelated, questions: what does the universe look like, and what is its origin? The opinions about creation considered by Norbert Samuelson come from the Hebrew scriptures, Greek philosophy, Jewish philosophy and contemporary physics. His perspective is Jewish, liberal and philosophical. It is 'Jewish' because the foundation of the discussion is biblical texts interpreted in the light of traditional rabbinic texts. It is 'philosophical' because the subject matter is important in both past and present philosophical texts, and to Jewish philosophy in particular. Finally, it is 'liberal' because the authorities consulted include heterodox as well as orthodox Jewish sources. The ensuing discussion leads to original conclusions about a diversity of topics, including the limits of human reason and religious faith, and the relevance of scientific models to religious doctrine.