Spinoza and Medieval Jewish Philosophy

Steven Nadler

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781107037861
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316190951
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Modern Philosophy

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Abbreviations for works by Spinoza
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Mortality of the soul from Alexander of Aphrodisias to Spinoza
• Chapter 2 Spinoza and the determinist tradition in medieval Jewish philosophy
• Chapter 3 The science of Scripture: Abraham ibn Ezra and Spinoza on biblical hermeneutics
• Chapter 4 Spinoza’s rejection of Maimonideanism
• Chapter 5 ‘Ishq, ḥesheq, and amor Dei intellectualis
• Chapter 6 Monotheism at bay: the Gods of Maimonides and Spinoza
• Chapter 7 Moral agency without free will: Spinoza’s naturalizing of moral psychology in a Maimonidean key
• Chapter 8 Virtue, reason, and moral luck: Maimonides, Gersonides, Spinoza
• Chapter 9 “Something of it remains”: Spinoza and Gersonides on intellectual eternity
• Chapter 10 Hasdai Crescas and Spinoza on actual infinity and the infinity of God’s attributes
• Bibliography
• Index