{"collection":"Judaism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/jud/gfp/index.htm","path":"jud/gfp/index.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/jud/gfp/index.htm","text":"There is a saying that the history of\nJewish doctrine goes runs from 'Moses to Moses';\nthe second of which is Moses Maimonides.\nMaimonides (1120-1190) was a brilliant Hispanic Jewish scholar who\nlived in Spain and Egypt in the 12th century.\nIn addition to being a philosopher, Maimonides also worked as a medical doctor.\nThe Guide for the Perplexed, originally written in Arabic, and soon\ntranslated into Hebrew and widely read, is his best known work.\nThe framing story is that it is a letter written to one of his students,\nto prepare him to understand the background of the\nMerkabah (the Chariot of Ezekiel) narrative.\nIn the course of this, Maimonides delves into the most difficult questions\nof theology and reality itself, many of which are\nstill controversial today.\nDid the universe have a beginning?\nWill it ever end?\nWhat is the nature of evil?\nDoes the complexity of organic life imply some kind of rational design?\nThe Guide consists of three books.\nThe first book deals with the nature of God, concluding that\nGod cannot be described in positive terms.\nHe uses this argument to systematically deconstruct\nthe Islamic Kalam literalist school of thought,\nwhich anthropomorphized God.\nThe second book examines natural philosophy, particularly Aristotle's\nsystem of concentric spheres, and theories of the creation and duration\nof the universe, and the theory of angels and prophecy.\nIn the last Book, he expounds the mystical Merkabah section of Ezekiel,\nskirting the traditional prohibition of direct explanation of this passage.\nAfter this he covers the 613 laws of the Pentateuch, organized into\n14 branches, attempting to present rational explanations for each law.\nThroughout, Maimonides stresses that the student needs to consider\nall theories.\nHe draws from Jewish, Islamic and ancient Greek philosophers, and\nevaluates each one on their merits.\nMost notably, he scrutinizes Aristotle's natural science\nin the light of scripture and physcial evidence--sometimes critically,\nforeshadowing the spirit of the Renaissance.\nThe seed of the scientific method is also present in his discussion\nof permitted cures (p. 335),\nreflecting his medical background:\n\"the Law permits as medicine everything that has been verified by experiment.\"\nControversial when it was written, the Guide continues\nto be a key reference point in the evolution of philosophy,\nand will be a rewarding journey for the modern reader.","title":"Guide for the Perplexed Index","type":"page"}