Medieval Jewish Philosophy after Maimonides

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

1. The Maimonidean Controversies and the Limits of Rationalism. Maimonides's Aristotelian rationalism ignited decades of bitter controversy among Jewish communities.
2. Gersonides on Divine Knowledge and the Eternity of the World. Gersonides radicalized Maimonidean rationalism, limiting divine knowledge and God's role in creation.
3. Hasdai Crescas's Critique of Aristotelian Physics. Crescas attacked Aristotelian physics directly, defending will and infinite space against Gersonides.
4. Joseph Albo and the Reformulation of Jewish Dogma. Albo reduced Jewish dogma to three fundamental roots, moderating Crescas's and Maimonides's positions.
5. Judah Halevi and the Kuzari's Critique of Philosophy. Halevi's Kuzari argued lived religious experience and revelation surpass philosophical demonstration.
6. Jewish Averroism and the Reception of Islamic Aristotelianism. Jewish scholars translated and elaborated Averroes, becoming crucial conduits into Latin Europe.
7. Don Isaac Abravanel and Late Medieval Jewish Political Thought. Abravanel, statesman and exile of 1492, defended divine kingship against philosophical monarchism.
8. The Legacy of Medieval Jewish Rationalism in Early Modern Thought. Medieval Jewish rationalist debates fed directly into Renaissance and early modern philosophy.