MAIMONIDES, THE PURVEYOR OF PERPLEXITIES

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed (henceforth Guide) shaped the course of subsequent Jewish religious philosophy, especially during the later Middle Ages. Maimonides had considerable impact also on some Christian medieval thinkers, such as Thomas Aquinas, and was studied by several early modern philosophers, such as Spinoza and Leibniz. The reception of the Guide in the medieval Jewish philosophical tradition was quite varied: Many reacted to it so enthusiastically that it became for them a virtual canonical text; others treated it sympathetically but critically; and some rejected it completely or in large part. But even in the latter case, the critique of Maimonides was presented in the language and conceptual framework of the Guide. This diverse and pervasive impact of the Guide can be in part attributed to the paradoxical result that instead of removing perplexities it raises them and leaves some of them unresolved.