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)