I'd like to clarify my comment on the podcast about how the emphasis on rationality as it regards the afterlife is common to Maimonides and Spinoza. I'm looking here at a review by Martin Lin of Steven Nadler's book Spinoza's Heresy: Immortality and the Jewish Mind. Now, Nadler is my go-to local Spinoza scholar--you can see him here and here--and he's the guy Seth was Continue Reading …
Episode 101: Maimonides on God
On Guide for the Perplexed (1168). What is God? Central to Judaism, at least, is the idea that He's a unity: "God is One." Maimonides thinks that this means you can't attribute properties to God at all. Why? Because (according to M's Aristotelian metaphysics, anyway) size, color, spatial and temporal location, mental state, etc. are really parts of a thing. Unity = no parts Continue Reading …
Episode 101: Maimonides on God (Citizen Edition)
On Guide for the Perplexed (1168). What is God? Central to Judaism, at least, is the idea that He's a unity: "God is One." Maimonides thinks that this means you can't attribute properties to God at all. Why? Because (according to M's Aristotelian metaphysics, anyway) size, color, spatial and temporal location, mental state, etc. are really parts of a thing. Unity = no parts Continue Reading …
Topic for #101: Maimonides on God
Listen to the episode. Finally, on 8/10/14, we recorded a discussion on a work from the Middle Ages: Guide for the Perplexed (1168) by Moses Maimonides, aka Mosheh ben Maimon, aka RaMBaM, which is a pretty awesome super hero name. Maimonides is smack in the middle of the tradition wherein many of Aristotle's (and Plato's, and other Greek) works were translated into Continue Reading …
L’Shanah Tovah – Jewish Proofs for the Existence of God (or Lack Thereof)
I think during the Mackie episode I mentioned that proving the existence of God through Reason seemed to me to be a decidely Western and Christian undertaking. I speculated that it wasn't an issue for Eastern religions (those that have a concept of God or gods) and declared that it wasn't one for Judaism. It occurs to me that I should stop speaking on behalf of the Continue Reading …