TY  - GEN
N2  - Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed has traditionally been read as an attempt to harmonize reason and revelation. Another, more recent interpretation takes the contradiction between philosophy and religion to be irreconcilable, and concludes that the Guide prescribes religion for the masses and philosophy for the elite. Moving beyond these familiar debates, Josef Stern argues that the perplexity addressed in this famously enigmatic work is not the conflict between Athens and Jerusalem but the tension between human matter and form, between the body and the intellect. Maimonides' philosophical tradition takes the perfect life to be intellectual: pure, undivided contemplation of all possible truths, from physics and cosmology to metaphysics and God. According to the Guide, this ideal cannot be realized by humans. Their embodied minds cannot achieve scientific knowledge of metaphysics, and their bodily impulses interfere with exclusive contemplation. Closely analyzing the arguments in the Guide and its original use of the parable as a medium of philosophical writing, Stern articulates Maimonides' skepticism about human knowledge of metaphysics and his heterodox interpretations of scriptural and rabbinic parables. Stern shows how, in order to accommodate the conflicting demands of the intellect and the body, Maimonides creates a repertoire of spiritual exercises, reconceiving the Mosaic commandments as training for the life of the embodied mind. By focusing on the philosophical notions of matter and form, and the interplay between its literary form and subject matter, Stern succeeds in developing a unified, novel interpretation of the Guide.
DO  - 10.4159/harvard.9780674075948
DO  - doi
AB  - Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed has traditionally been read as an attempt to harmonize reason and revelation. Another, more recent interpretation takes the contradiction between philosophy and religion to be irreconcilable, and concludes that the Guide prescribes religion for the masses and philosophy for the elite. Moving beyond these familiar debates, Josef Stern argues that the perplexity addressed in this famously enigmatic work is not the conflict between Athens and Jerusalem but the tension between human matter and form, between the body and the intellect. Maimonides' philosophical tradition takes the perfect life to be intellectual: pure, undivided contemplation of all possible truths, from physics and cosmology to metaphysics and God. According to the Guide, this ideal cannot be realized by humans. Their embodied minds cannot achieve scientific knowledge of metaphysics, and their bodily impulses interfere with exclusive contemplation. Closely analyzing the arguments in the Guide and its original use of the parable as a medium of philosophical writing, Stern articulates Maimonides' skepticism about human knowledge of metaphysics and his heterodox interpretations of scriptural and rabbinic parables. Stern shows how, in order to accommodate the conflicting demands of the intellect and the body, Maimonides creates a repertoire of spiritual exercises, reconceiving the Mosaic commandments as training for the life of the embodied mind. By focusing on the philosophical notions of matter and form, and the interplay between its literary form and subject matter, Stern succeeds in developing a unified, novel interpretation of the Guide.
T1  - The Matter and Form of Maimonides' Guide /
AU  - Stern, Josef,
JF  - E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2013
JF  - E-BOOK PACKAGE PHILOSOPHY  2013
JF  - E-BOOK PAKET PHILOSOPHIE  2013
JF  - HUP Complete eBook Package 2011-2014
JF  - HUP eBook Package 2013
JF  - HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
JF  - HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2014
JF  - HUP eBook Package Backlist 2000-2015
EP  - ZDB-23-DGG
EP  - ZDB-23-DPH
LA  - eng
LA  - In English.
ID  - 1479243
KW  - Jewish philosophy.
KW  - Judaism
KW  - Philosophy, Medieval.
KW  - PHILOSOPHY / Epistemology.
KW  - PHILOSOPHY / Metaphysics.
KW  - PHILOSOPHY / Religious.
KW  - RELIGION / Judaism / Theology.
KW  - PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Medieval.
SN  - 9780674075948
TI  - The Matter and Form of Maimonides' Guide /
LK  - https://univsouthin.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://univsouthin.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780674075948
UR  - https://univsouthin.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://univsouthin.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780674075948
ER  -