Ethical Writings of Maimonides

Maimonides

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486245225
• eBook ISBN: 9780486119342
• Topic: Philosophie
• Subtopic: Histoire du peuple juif

Philosopher, physician, and master of rabbinical literature, Moses ben Maimon (1135-1204) strove to reconcile biblical revelation with medieval Aristotelianism. His writings, especially the celebrated Guide for the Perplexed, exercised considerable influence on both Jewish and Christian scholasticism and brought him lasting renown as one of the greatest medieval thinkers.
This volume contains his most significant ethical works, newly translated from the original sources by Professors Raymond L. Weiss and Charles E. Butterworth, well-known Maimonides scholars. Previous translations have often been inadequate — either because they were not based on the best possible texts or from a lack of precision. That deficiency has been remedied in this text; the translations are based on the latest scholarship and have been made with a view toward maximum accuracy and readability. Moreover, the long "Letter to Joseph" has been translated into English for the first time.
This edition includes the following selections:
I. Laws Concerning Character Traits (complete)
II. Eight Chapters (complete)
III. On the Management of Health
IV. Letter to Joseph
V. Guide of the Perplexed
VII. The Days of the Messiah
Taken as a whole, this collection presents a comprehensive and revealing overview of Maimonides' thought regarding the relationship of revelation and reason in the sphere of ethics. Here are his teachings concerning "natural law," secular versus religious authority, the goals of moral conduct, diseases of the soul, the application of logic to ethical matters, and the messianic era. Throughout, the great sage is concerned to reconcile the apparent divergence between biblical teachings and Greek philosophy.

II

EIGHT CHAPTERS

Eight Chapters is part of Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah. The Mishnah itself is an early rabbinic code of law, dating from the third century C.E. It later became part of the Talmud, which contains lengthy and often complicated discussions of the Mishnah. Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah, his first legal work, made the Mishnah accessible to readers who did not have extensive knowledge of the Talmud.

No tractate of the Mishnah deals with ethics as such. In order to give a coherent account of this subject, Maimonides wrote a long Introduction to Pirqei Avot (Chapters of the Fathers). This Introduction, a self-contained unit with surprisingly few quotations from Avot, has come to be known as Eight Chapters. The work was not entitled Eight Chapters by Maimonides, but he did divide the original Arabic text into eight chapters.¹

INTRODUCTION

In the introduction to this composition, we explained the reason this compiler¹ placed this tractate [Avot] in this Order,² and we also mentioned its great utility.³ Several times in earlier parts of this composition we promised to speak about useful matters in this tractate and to do so at some length. For even though it is clear and easily understood on the surface, to carry out what it contains is not easy for all people, nor are all of its intentions understandable without a lucid explanation. However, it leads to great perfection and true happiness, and I therefore saw fit to discuss it in detail.

They [the sages], peace be upon them, said: Whoever wants to become a pious man should fulfill the words of Avot.⁴ According to us,⁵ there is no rank above piety except for prophecy, the one leading to the other. As they said: Piety brings about the holy spirit.⁶ Thus, from what they have said, it is clear that following the discipline⁷ described in this tractate leads to prophecy. We shall explain the truth of this, for it encompasses⁸ a large portion of morality.

Before taking up the explanation of each particular law, I saw fit to begin with some useful chapters, from which a man can acquire principles⁹ and which will also be like a key for him to what we shall present in the commentary.

Know that the things about which we shall speak in these chapters and in what will come in the commentary are not matters invented on my own nor explanations I have originated. Indeed, they are matters gathered from the discourse¹⁰ of the sages¹¹ in the Midrash,¹² the Talmud, and other compositions of theirs, as well as from the discourse of both the ancient and modern philosophers, and from the compositions of many men.¹³ Hear the truth from whoever says it. Sometimes I have taken a complete passage from the text of a famous book. Now there is nothing wrong with that, for I do not attribute to myself what someone who preceded me said. We hereby acknowledge this and shall not indicate that “so-and-so said” and “so-and-so said,” since that would be useless prolixity. Moreover, [identifying] the name of such an individual might make the passage offensive to someone without experience and make him think it has an evil inner meaning of which he is not aware. Consequently, I saw fit to omit the author’s name, since my goal is to be useful to the reader. We shall explain to him the hidden meanings in this tractate.

I now turn to the chapters I saw fit to set forth here in accordance with my goal. There are eight chapters.

THE FIRST CHAPTER

On the soul of man and its powers

Know that the soul of man is a single soul. It has many different actions, some of which are sometimes called souls. One might therefore think, as the physicians do, that man has many souls. Even the most eminent physician stated that there are three souls: natural, vital, and psychic.¹ These are sometimes called powers and parts, so that one speaks of the parts of the soul. This terminology is frequently used by the philosophers. By saying “parts” they do not mean that the soul is divided into parts as bodies are divided into parts. Indeed, they regard the different actions of the totality of the soul as parts of a whole composed of those parts.

You know that the improvement of moral habits² is the same as the cure of the soul and its powers. The doctor who cures bodies needs first to know, in its entirety, the body he is curing and what the parts of the body are, I mean the body of man. And he needs to know what things make it sick so that they may be avoided and what things make it healthy so that they may be pursued. Similarly, the one who treats the soul and wishes to purify moral habits needs to know the soul in its entirety and its parts, as well as what makes it sick and what makes it healthy. Therefore I say that there are five parts of the soul: nutritive, sentient, imaginative, appetitive, and rational.

We have already indicated in this chapter that our discourse would be about the soul of man because man’s nutritive part, for example, is not the same as the nutritive part belonging to a donkey or a horse. For man is nourished by the nutritive part of the human soul, a donkey is nourished by the nutritive part of the donkey’s soul, and a palm tree is nourished by the nutritive part of its soul. Now, all these individuals are said to be “nourished” solely due to the equivocal character of the word, not because the meaning itself is one. Likewise, an individual man and animal are said to be “sentient” solely due to the equivocal character of the word, not because the sensation which is in man is the same sensation which is in the horse. Nor is the sensation which is in one species the same sensation which is in another species. Rather, every single species having a soul possesses a unique soul, different from the soul...

Table of contents

• DOVER BOOKS ON WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD
• NOTES ON THE TRANSLATIONS
• INTRODUCTION
• I - LAWS CONCERNING CHARACTER TRAITS
• II - EIGHT CHAPTERS
• III - ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH
• IV - LETTER TO JOSEPH
• V - GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED
• VI - TREATISE ON THE ART OF LOGIC
• VII - THE DAYS OF THE MESSIAH
• A CATALOG OF SELECTED