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Maimonides's "Guide" on Obstacles to Knowledge, Being, and Action

Maimonides's "Guide" on Obstacles to Knowledge, Being, and Action
By author: Joshua Parens
Product Code: P715
ISBN: 9780881469639
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Maimonides's GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED (completed ca. 1191 CE) is among the most important and elusive works in the history of Judaism and philosophy. Among the greatest difficulties has been determining what genre of writing it belongs to. Leo Strauss challenged the contemporary consensus that it is a work of "Jewish philosophy." Rather, the GUIDE is first and foremost a defense of the Law, or what his predecessor, whom he praised highly, Alfarabi identified as the art of kalam or dialectical theology. However, it is an unusual sort of kalam, which Strauss dubbed "intelligent kalam." Since Shlomo Pines's 1979 article on the limits of knowledge in Maimonides (as well as Alfarabi and Ibn Bajja), much of Maimonides scholarship has centered on these limits. In his book on the GUIDE in 2013, Josef Stern identified two extremes on the limits of knowledge--the dogmatic and the skeptical. He expanded on Pines's skeptical reading. Here, Parens provides a middle ground between these two extremes and argues that the limits are intentionally vague, thereby making possible not only a defense of the Law but also a defense of philosophy. The second part concerns the three great themes of the GUIDE: creation, prophecy, and providence. Maimonides's preferred position on prophecy is that God's will can prevent it. It is unlikely to be coincidental that obstacles, impediments, and prevention are also crucial in his accounts of creation and providence. Parens argues that obstacles or privation are a key to these themes and the GUIDE as a whole.
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Reviews

Review by: James A. Diamond, Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair in Jewish Studies, University of Waterloo - December 20, 2024
"Much of the scholarship on Maimonides is notoriously riven by vigorous debate sifting out the esoteric from the exoteric to arrive at either positive assertions or an overall skepticism related to creation, providence, and prophecy. Joshua Parens offers a brilliantly insightful and novel reading of Maimonides which argues that existential political philosophy is the key to unravelling theoretical Maimonidean metaphysics. His study profoundly demonstrates how the doubt, contradictions, and vagueness that pervade the GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED are precisely what illuminate rather than obscure its core meaning."
Review by: Kenneth Hart Green, professor, department of the Study of Religion, University of Toronto - December 20, 2024
"In his compelling new book, Joshua Parens sails into the center of current debates about the great thinker Maimonides. He masters those debates by persuasively working through them, employing careful reading and sophisticated argumentation. He shows how Maimonides sticks closely to his high-minded principles in order to pursue the truth, aided by philosophy while still supporting theology. As such, Parens makes a truly original contribution to the growing field of Maimonides studies."
Review by: Y. Tzvi Langermann, emeritus professor of Arabic, Bar-Ilan University - December 20, 2024
"Moses Maimonides delved deeply into some of the most delicate and difficult problems of philosophical theology; and he chose a deliberately elusive writing style with which to share his deliberations and conclusions. It should come as no surprise, then, that interpretations of his thought have been many and highly variegated. Joshua Parens, an established scholar of medieval philosophy, adds another learned voice to the ongoing, and never-ending, discussions of Maimonides's 'true stance' on controversial issues."

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