Jewish Philosophy

Jewish philosophy

Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology.

Accepting the results of a given Jewish philosophy will lead to accepting a particular Jewish principle of faith. As with any fusion of religion and philosophy, the attempt is difficult because classical philosophers start with no preconditions for which conclusions they must reach in their investigation, while classical religious believers have a set of religious principles of faith that they hold one must believe.

Some maintain, however, that in reality this critisicm is incorrectly solely directed at religious philosophy. Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (Strive for Truth Vol. 1) contends that no human being can possibly claim objectivity in philosophical investigations with moral implications: "..a person senses in advance that the answer will make a significant difference...On the solution will depend whether he will be obliged for the rest of his life to struggle with his baser desires...or whether he will be able to live without a higher responsibility". On this basis Dessler maintains that only those who have spent years concentrating on the subjugation of their desires to their intellect, can even begin to claim intellectual impartiality. Indeed, according to this it is more likely for religious philosophy to succeed in attaining the truth then secular philosophy.

Some, however, hold that one cannot simultaneously be a philosopher and a true adherent of a revealed religion. In this view, all attempts at synthesis ultimately fail. For example, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov a Hasidic mystic views all philosophy as untrue and heretical. Approaching this point of view from the opposite direction, Baruch Spinoza, a pantheist, views revealed religion as inferior to philosophy, and thus saw traditional Jewish philosophy as an intellectual failure.

Others hold that a synthesis between the two is possible. One way to find a synthesis is to use philosophical arguments to prove that one's religious principles are true. This is a common technqiue found in the writings of many religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but this is not generally accepted as true philosophy by philosophers. One example of this approach is found in the writings of Lawrence Kelemen, in his Permission to Believe, (Feldheim 1990).

Another way to find a synthesis is to abstain from holding as true any religious principles of one's faith at all, unless one independently comes to those conclusions from a philosophical analysis. In some ways this can be found in the works of Reconstructionist Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (20th century). However, this approach is not generally accepted as being faithful to one's religion by adherents of that religion.

Another path towards synthesis is to apply analytical philosophy to one's own religion in order to strengthen the basis of that faith. Among Jewish thinkers who had this view one may note Saadia Gaon, Gersonides, and Abraham Ibn Daud. In this latter case a religious person would also be a philosopher, by asking questions such as:

What is the nature of God? How do we know that God exists?

What is the nature of revelation? How do we know that God reveals his will to mankind?

Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted literally?

Which of our religious traditions must be interpreted allegorically?

What must one actually believe to be considered a true adherent of our religion?

How can one reconcile the findings of philosophy with religion?

How can one reconcile the findings of science with religion?

According to some views, this may perhaps be the task of Jewish philosophy, but there is no way to end the debate conclusively.

Early Jewish philosophy

Early Jewish philosophy was heavily influenced by the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Islamic philosophy. Many early medieval Jewish philosophers (from the 8th century to end of the 9th century) were especially influenced by the Islamic Mutazilite philosophers; they denied all limiting attributes of God and were champions of God's unity and justice.

Over time Aristotle came to be thought of as the philosopher par excellence among Jewish thinkers. This tendency was no less marked in the Islamic, the Christian Byzantine and the Latin-Christian schools of thought.

Philo of Alexandria

Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE - 40 CE) was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher born in Alexandria, Egypt.

Philo included in his philosophy both the wisdom of Ancient Greece and Judaism, which he sought to fuse and harmonize by means of the art of allegory that he had learned as much from Jewish exegesis as from the Stoics. His work was not widely accepted. Philo made his philosophy the means of defending and justifying Jewish religious truths. These truths he regarded as fixed and determinate; and philosophy was used as an aid to truth, and as a means of arriving at it. With this end in view Philo chose from the philosophical tenets of the Greeks, refusing those that did not harmonize with the Jewish religion, as, e.g., the Aristotelian doctrine of the eternity and indestructibility of the world.

Avicebron, Solomon ibn Gabirol

The Jewish poet-philosopher Solomon Ibn Gabirol is also known as Avicebron. He died about 1070 CE. He was influenced by Plato. His classic work on philosophy was Mekor Chayim, "The Source of Life". His work on ethics is entitled Tikkun Middot HaNefesh, "Correcting the Qualities of the Soul".

In Gabirol's work Plato is the only philosopher referred to by name. Characteristic of the philosophy of both is the conception of a Middle Being between God and the world, between species and individual. Aristotle had already formulated the objection to the Platonic theory of ideas, that it lacked an intermediary or third being between God and the universe, between form and matter. This "third man," this link between incorporeal substances (ideas) and idealess bodies (matter), is, with Philo, the Logos; with Gabirol it is the divine will. Philo gives the problem an intellectual aspect; while Gabirol conceives it as a matter of volition, approximating thus to such modern thinkers as Schopenhauer and Wundt.

Gabirol