Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The topic of rationalism in Jewish philosophy is a potentially enormous one, something that could not possibly be adequately treated in a single essay. After all, it has been argued (with good reason) that the defining feature of Jewish philosophy in general (and perhaps any religious philosophy) is the project of harmonizing faith and reason, or bringing together what one believes as a matter of religious tradition and what one believes as a rational knower. “One can say that the history of Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages is the history of the effort of the Jews to reconcile philosophy (or a system of rationalist thought) and scripture” ( Sirat 1985 : 5). On this view, Jewish philosophy is essentially a rationalistic enterprise. This would make the study of rationalism in Jewish philosophy the study of Jewish philosophy itself. And yet, even putting aside the mysticist tradition within Jewish philosophy-a strong and heterogeneous tradition that extends from Philo of Alexandria up through medieval and Renaissance kabbalah and on into the modern period-it is certainly possible to distinguish within Jewish philosophy several different attitudes toward rationalism, ranging from dogmatic devotion to outright hostility. One can find, between the ninth century, when medieval Jewish philosophy really begins, and the seventeenth century, when it reaches its logical culmination in the ... log in or subscribe to read full text