In this comprehensive study, Marvin Fox offers an approach to Moses Maimonides that illuminates the intersections of his philosophical, religious, and Jewish visions—ideas that have embattled readers of Maimonides since the twelfth century.
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Marvin Fox is Philip W. Lown Professor Emeritus of Jewish Philosophy at Brandeis University and professor of philosophy and religion at Boston University.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An elegant, complex, yet accessible interpretation,
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This review is from: Interpreting Maimonides: Studies in Methodology, Metaphysics, and Moral Philosophy (Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism) (Paperback)
This superb work is not merely a collection of the late Marvin Fox's essays on Maimonides: it is a synthetic, tightly-knit work that connects, as the title suggests, the themes of 1) how to read Maimonides; 2) the Rambam's theory of being; and 3) his ethical theory. This last subject is somewhat of a misnomer, as Fox insists that Maimonides HAS no ethical theory per se: Fox believes that Maimonides held that there is no such thing as moral reasoning. Instead, moral values must come from God. This is a minority viewpoint among Maimonides scholars, but if Fox is not totally persuasive on it, he makes a plausible case.
And he does so--as he does in all of these essays--with a writing style that is fluid, graceful, and above all, clear without being simplistic. Reading Fox on Maimonides is to be in the presence of a great teacher discussing a great thinker. Fox is particularly compelling in his discussion of Maimonides' view of reason. The popular view is that Maimonides was a thorough-going rationalist, insisting that reason and faith were completely compatible. Fox shows that this is not true: instead, Maimonides held a complex and tension-filled view of reason and faith existing in separate spheres. Yet Maimonides also realized that separating these spheres was anything but easy. Fox' close reading of the first two chapters of the Guide of the Perplexed is alone worth the price of admission. I read this book shortly after Kenneth Seeskin's Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed, and while I liked Seeskin's treatment, Fox's is truly the gold standard. Isadore Twersky's classic work on the Mishnah Torah is also recommended, but is much denser and longer. Of course, to some extent that is the price one pays (and the benefit one gets) from interacting with the Rambam. The only way to begin to understand Maimonides is to read him. Before reading Fox, I read the Guide myself, cover to cover, and perhaps understood 20% of it. Maimonides himself probably would not have approved of modern readers simply diving in, but in our age, with a dearth of great teachers accessible to an educated readership, that is the only way. Studying Maimonides is a lifelong occupation: Fox's book is a crucial step on that road.
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It is remarkable that despite the vast literature on many aspects of the work of Moses Maimonides, we do not have even one comprehensive study of his thought that compares in quality and scope to the great works that have been written on almost every important Western philosopher. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
eternity thesis, supralunar world, term demut, divine corporeality, truth from whatever source, divine overflow, sublunar world, proper excellence, divine causality, corporeal properties, seventh cause, divine causation, intellectual apprehension, rabbinic ruling, singular propositions, inconsistent propositions, natural moral law, fifth cause, demonstrative certainty Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mishneh Torah, New York, Leo Strauss, Shemonah Perakim, First Mover, Old Law, New Testament, Hebrew Bible, Isadore Twersky, Middle Ages, Moses Maimonides, Shlomo Pines, Garden of Eden, Holy One, Literary Character, Nicomachean Ethics, Saadia Gaon, Alexander Altmann, Isaac Husik, Summa Theologica, God Himself, Hermann Cohen, New Haven, Old Testament, Ralph Lerner New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
It is remarkable that despite the vast literature on many aspects of the work of Moses Maimonides, we do not have even one comprehensive study of his thought that compares in quality and scope to the great works that have been written on almost every important Western philosopher. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
eternity thesis, supralunar world, term demut, divine corporeality, truth from whatever source, divine overflow, sublunar world, proper excellence, divine causality, corporeal properties, seventh cause, divine causation, intellectual apprehension, rabbinic ruling, singular propositions, inconsistent propositions, natural moral law, fifth cause, demonstrative certainty Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Mishneh Torah, New York, Leo Strauss, Shemonah Perakim, First Mover, Old Law, New Testament, Hebrew Bible, Isadore Twersky, Middle Ages, Moses Maimonides, Shlomo Pines, Garden of Eden, Holy One, Literary Character, Nicomachean Ethics, Saadia Gaon, Alexander Altmann, Isaac Husik, Summa Theologica, God Himself, Hermann Cohen, New Haven, Old Testament, Ralph Lerner New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 40
books:
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7
books
cite this book:
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- The Guide of the Perplexed, Vol. 1 by Moses Maimonides on 41 pages
- The Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford World's Classics) by Aristotle on 6 pages
- Persecution and the Art of Writing by Leo Strauss on 6 pages
- The Summa Theologica (Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 19 & 20) by Thomas Aquinas on 4 pages
- Philosophy and Law: Essays Toward the Understanding of Maimonides and His Predecessors/Bk No 662 by Leo Strauss on 4 pages
See all 40 books this book cites
- Jewish Messianism and the History of Philosophy by Martin Kavka on page 85, and Back Matter
- Prophecy: The History of an Idea in Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Philosophy) by Howard Kreisel in Back Matter
- At War With Time: Western Thought from The Sages to the 21st Century by Craig Eisendrath in Back Matter
- The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) by Daniel H. Frank in Back Matter
- Looking At Philosophy: The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter by Donald Palmer on page 149
See all 7 books citing this book
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