Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Texts and Contexts
- II Logic and Language
- III Natural Philosophy
- IV Epistemology and Psychology
- 14 Belief, Knowledge, and Certainty
- 15 Understanding Prophecy: Four Traditions
- 16 Soul and Intellect
- V Metaphysics and Philosophical Theology
- VI Practical Philosophy
- Biobibliographical Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
16 - Soul and Intellect
from IV - Epistemology and Psychology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Texts and Contexts
- II Logic and Language
- III Natural Philosophy
- IV Epistemology and Psychology
- 14 Belief, Knowledge, and Certainty
- 15 Understanding Prophecy: Four Traditions
- 16 Soul and Intellect
- V Metaphysics and Philosophical Theology
- VI Practical Philosophy
- Biobibliographical Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Whether or not Judaism is carnal – as the ancient and medieval Christian polemicists would claim – already in antiquity Jews read out of and together with the Hebrew Bible a rich discourse on the soul. This is the case with Philo of Alexandria (first century ce), who produced a large corpus of philosophical-exegetical-allegorical texts uncovering the psychic and ethical underpinnings of Judaism. It is also true of rabbinic Judaism, which has much to say in Midrash and Talmud about the soul and its inner workings, even if its ideas and theories are presented mythically – as stories, parables, and homiletical exhortations – rather than straightforward scientific investigations.
During the Middle Ages, the biblical and rabbinic discussions of the soul combined with Greek, Arabic–Islamic, and scholastic philosophy to produce a complex and dynamic tradition of philosophical–theological psychology. This begins already with Saadia Gaon (882–942) – “the first to speak about every discipline of wisdom” – and continues into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when Jewish thinkers were especially focused on the soul and intellect, in the midst of contemporary debates about action versus contemplation and the possibility of attaining “salvation.”
This chapter introduces and surveys the medieval tradition of Jewish philosophical–theological psychology, concentrating on the period from the ninth to the fifteenth century. It is divided into two parts: Judeo–Arabic philosophy in the Islamic–Arabic world (900–1200), and Hebrew philosophy in Christian Europe (1150–1500). In general, it presents first the philosophical background, identifying the main philosophical sources and traditions that influenced the Jews; it then details the Jewish responses to the non-Jewish traditions and challenges.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Jewish PhilosophyFrom Antiquity through the Seventeenth Century, pp. 524 - 558Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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