INTRODUCTOIN TO JEWISH MEDIEVAL THOUGHT

INTRODUCTOIN TO JEWISH MEDIEVAL THOUGHT

 

Dita Rukriglova, consultation hours: Tuesday 14-15, room 220

 

 

Themes and figures:

1.      Saadia ben Joseph: historical role of gaonim, comparative psychology, soul of man

2.      Salomon ibn Gabirol: neo-platonic influence, theory of universal matter and form, structure of geocentric universe

3.      Judah Halevi: poet and critic of (peripatetic) philosophy, divine order and elite of mankind

4.      Maimonides: reception of Aristotelian ethics, extremes of the middle way & whom is the Guide addressed to and what is it about?


 

Tuesday

19th February: Introduction

26th February: Saadia ben Joseph (gaon)

4th March: Salomon ibn Gabirol

11th March: Judah Halevi

18th March: Moses ben Maimon

25th March: Moses ben Maimon

 

Thursday

21st February: 0

28th February: Book of Beliefs and Opinions

6th March: Kingly Crown & Fountain of Life

13th March: The Kuzari

20th March: Mishne Tora , Book of Knowledge

27th March: Guide for the Perplexed


 

Primary texts:

Saadia Gaon, Book of Beliefs and Opinions, tr. S. Rosenblatt, Yale University Press, 19762

Judah Halevi, The Kuzari, tr. H. Hirschfeld, Schocken Books, New York, 1964

Salomon ibn Gabirol, The Fountain of Life, tr. by A.B. Jacob, Aries, 1987

Salomon ibn Gabirol, The Kingly Crown, tr. B. Lewis, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2002

Maimonides, Mishneh Torah,tr. E. Touger, Moznaim, Jerusalem, 1989-1993

Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, tr. S. Pines, University of Chicago Press, 1963

 

Secondary literature:

Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman, History of Islamic Philosophy, Routledge, 2001

Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, Harward University Press, 1976

Oliver Leaman, An Introduction to Medieval Islamic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1992

Isaak Husik, A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy, NY, 1969

The Jewish Philosophy Reader, ed. by D.H. Frank, O. Leaman a Ch.H. Manekin, Routledge, NY, 2000

Henry Corbin, Histoire de la philosophie islamique, Gallimard, 1986

Goitein, Mediterranean Society, The Jewish Communities of the World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, University of California Press, 2000, vol. 1-6.

 

Duties:

1.      Oral presentation of one selected text (10-20 minutes)

2.      Paper on the presented theme (10 pages maximum)