Crescas' Critique of Aristotle: Problems of Aristotle's Physics in Jewish and Arabic Philosophy (Harvard Semitic Series)

771 Pages·1929·20.56 MB·English

by  Harry Austryn Wolfson

HARVARD SEMITIC SERIES
VOLUME VI
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
JAMES RICHARD JEWETT, DAVID GOROON LYON,
GEORGE FOOT MOORE
CRESCAS' CRITIQUE OF ARISTOTLE
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD
O'CFOR!l I'NI\"F.RSITY I'RESS
CRESCAS' CRITIQUE
OF ARISTOTLE
PROBLEMS OF ARISTOTLE'S PHYSICS
IN JEWISH AND ARABIC PHILOSOPHY
B"\
HARRY AUSTRYN WOLFSON
NATHAN LITTAI:ER PROFESSOR OF
JEWI'H LITERATURE AND PHILO,OPII\'
IN HARVARD lJNIVERMTY
CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1929
<.OPYRIGIH, 1929
DV 1.Hl!. PRESllrt•-::NT AND lo"El.LOWS Olo'
l!ARV ARil COLLEGE
fRIISTED AT
lHE JE11H~H PUBLl("ATION SOCIETY PUSS
PBU.ADELPBIA, PA., U. S. A.
TO
LUCIUS NATHAN LITTAUER
LOVER OF LEARNING
IN HIGH ESTEEM AND APPRECIATION

PREFACE
MEDIAEVAL philosophy is no longer considered as a barren in
terval between ancient and modern philosophy. Nor is it any
longer identified with works written solely in Latin. Scholarship
recognizes it more and more as a formative period in the history
of philosophy the records of which are to be found in a threefold
literature-Arabic, Hebrew and Latin. In certain respects,
the delineation and treatment of the history of philosophy
should follow the same lines as the delineation and treatment of
the political and social history of Europe. The closing of the
philosophic schools at Athens early in the sixth century is
analogous in its effect to the fall of Rome toward the end of
the fifth century. Like the latter, it brought a dying past to
its end, and prepared the way for a shifting of scene in a phase
of history. The successive translations of Greek treatises into
Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew and Latin correspond, in philosophy, to
the spread of the diverse elements of Roman civilization with the
successions of tribal wanderings, of invasions, and of conversions.
Both accomplished similar results, transforming something
antiquated and moribund into something new, with life in it.
By the same token, just as one cannot treat of the new life
that appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages as merely the
result of the individual exploits of heroes, or of the eloquence
of preachers, or of the inventive fancy of courtiers, so one can
not treat of the development of mediaeval philosophic thought
as a mere interplay of abstract com:epts. There is an earthly
basis to the development of philosophic problems in the Middle
Ages-and that is language and text. The present work is an
attempt to trace the history of certain problems of philosophy
by means of philological and textual studies.
Vll
VIII PREFACE
In form this work is a study of certain portions of I;Iasdai
Crescas' Or Adonai ("The Light of the Lord"). In substance
it is a historical and critical investigation of the main problems
of Aristotle's Physics and De Caelo. Its material, largely un
published, is drawn from the general field or Jewish philosophy
and from related works in Arabic philosophy, such as the writings
of Avicenna and Algazali, and particularly the commentaries of
Averroes on Aristotle. The scope of this work, confined as it
is to a closely interdependent group of writings, did not call
for citations from works outside the field of Greek, Arabic and
Jewish philosophy. Yet the material is such that the discussion
of the history of the various problems will furnish a background
for corresponding discussions of the same problems in scholastic
philosophy. The notes, which form the greater part of the work,
are detachable from the text and can be used in connection with
similar texts in other works. Many of the notes exceed the
bounds of mere explanatory comments, being in fact extended
investigations of the development of certain philosophic con
cepts by means of a study of the interpretation and criticism
to which Aristotle's writings were subjected in two forms of
mediaeval philosophic literature-the Arabic and the Hebrew.
I;Iasdai Crescas, whose work is the subject of the special
investigation, was a true representative of the interpenetration
of the Arabic and Hebrew philosophic traditions. Born in
Barcelona in 1340, he died in Saragossa in 1410. He flourished,
it will be seen, two centuries after Maimonides (1135-1204),
who was the last of that line of Jewish philosophers, beginning
with Saadia (882-942), whose works were written in Arabic
for Arabic speaking Jews. During these two intervening cen
turies the centre of Jewish philosophic activity had shifted to
non-Arabic speaking countries-to Christian Spain, to Southern
France and to Italy-where the sole literary language of the
Jews was Hebrew. In these new centres, the entire philosophi':
literature written in Arabic by Jews as well as almost everything
PREFACE IX
of general philosophic interest written by Moslems was trans
lated into Hebrew, and thereby Hebrew literature became also
the repository of the whole Aristotelian heritage of Greek
philosophy. Acquaintance with the sources of philosophy
acquired by means of these translations stimulated the pro
duction of an original philosophic literature in Hebrew, rich
both in content and in volume. It also gave rise to a new
attitude toward philosophy, an attitude of independence, of
research and of criticism, which, among those who continued to
be opposed to philosophy, manifested itself in a change in the
temper of their opposition, while among those who were aligned
on the side of philosophy, it took the form of incisive, searching
studies of older texts and problems. Of the vast learning so
attained by fourteenth century Jewish scholars and also of the
critical attitude which inspired their studies Crescas is the
fruition. In his work are mirrored the achievements of five
centuries of philosophic activity among Moslems and Jews,
and in his method of inquiry is reflected the originality and
the independence of mind which characterize the Jewish pHiloso
phic writings of his time-an originality and independence
which is yet to be recognized. Crescas' method has been
described elsewhere in this work {pp. 24-29) as the hypothetico
deductive method of Talmudic reasoning, usually called pilpul,
which is in reality the application of the scientific procedure to
the study of texts. Applied by Crescas to the study of the texts
of others, this method is here applied to the text of his Or
Adonai.
The Or Adonai is divided into four Books (ma'amarim), the
first three of which are subdivided into Parts (kelalim), or, as
the Latin translators from the Hebrew would more accurately
call them, summulae, and these are again subdivided into
Chapters (pera~im). The first twenty-five chapters of Part I
of Book I are written in the form of proofs of the twenty-five
propositions in which Maimonides summed up the main prin-
X PREFACE
ciples of Aristotle's philosophy. The first twenty chapters of
Part ll of Book I are written in the form of a criticism of twenty
out of the twenty-five propositions. The present work deals
with these two sets of chapters, with the proofs and the criticisms.
Together they compose about one sixth of the entire work.
A separate study of Part III of Book I and of the remaining
chapters of Parts I and II will be published shortly under the
title Crescas on the Existence and AUributes of God. In reprinting
the text I have changed somewhat its original order by placing
the criticism of each proposition immediately after its resP«:ctive
proof. The text is edited on the basis of the first edition and of
eleven manuscripts; it is accompanied by an English translation
and is followed by a commentary in the form of notes on the
translation. There is also an Introduction, which is divided
into six chapters. Chapter I discusses literary and historical
problems. Chapters II to V contain a systematic presentation
of the main problems dealt with in the text and the notes.
Chapter VI interprets some of the larger aspects of Crescas'
philosophy and endeavors to appraise him as one of the first
to forecast that which ever since the sixteenth century has been
known as the new conception of the universe. Translation,
commentary and introduction are interdependent and mutually
complementary.
The study of a text is always an adventure, the adventure of
prying into the unknown recesses of the mind of another. There
is sleuthing in scholarship as there is in crime, and it is as full
of mystery, danger, intrigue, suspense and thrills-if only the
story were told. In a work of this kind, however, the story is
not the thing. What one is after is the information it uncovers.
Accordingly, no attempt has been made to recount the pro
cesses of the search. Only the results arrived at are set down,
and the corroborative data are so marshalled as to let them
speak for themselves and convince the reader by the obviousness
of the contention.