Freudenthal, Gad (Author)
Fontaine, Resianne (Author)
Gersonides believed that the material world, which he took to have been created by a voluntary act by the deity, is the best possible one. One aspect of the excellence of the world is the providence the deity exerts over all living beings, perfecting each so as to preserve its existence for the longest possible time. On the most basic level, that of matter, any living being would indeed disintegrate were it not sustained by a power external to matter itself. Gersonides follows a very long tradition, codified notably in Meteorologica 4, holding that all composite substances necessarily decay and corrupt, as a result of the strife between their opposing components (elements and qualities). He goes out of his way to emphasize this inherent tendency of composite substances to decay, drawing on Meteorologica 4 much more frequently than most writers. This line of argument is consistent with (or even derives from) his view of the primeval quasi-matter without form, which is sheer privation and deficiency, out of which the deity formed the material world. Fortunately, providence counterbalances this built-in tendency of sublunar substances to disintegrate through the influences (programmed at creation) reaching them from the stars. A brief comparison with views of Samuel Ibn Tibbon leads to the argument that Gersonides underscored the theory of matter of Meteorologica 4 in order to aggrandize the role of providence.
...More
Article
Gaziel, Ahuva;
(2012)
Gersonides' Naturalistic Account of Providence in Light of the Book of Animals
(/isis/citation/CBB001211057/)
Book
Ofer Elior;
Gad Freudenthal;
David Wirmer;
(2020)
Gersonides' Afterlife: Studies on the Reception of Levi ben Gerson’s Philosophical, Halakhic and Scientific Oeuvre in the 14th through 20th Centuries. Officina Philosophica Hebraica Volume 2
(/isis/citation/CBB315459134/)
Article
Harvey, Warren Zev;
(2012)
Gersonides and Spinoza on Conatus
(/isis/citation/CBB001211058/)
Book
Sirat, Colette;
Klein-Braslavy, Sara;
Weijers, Olga;
(2003)
Les méthodes de travail de Gersonide et le maniement du savoir chez les scolastiques
(/isis/citation/CBB000740996/)
Article
Robinson, James T.;
(2009)
Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Peruš ha-Millot ha-Zarot and al-Farabi's Eisagoge and Categories
(/isis/citation/CBB000930648/)
Article
Klein-Braslavy, Sara;
Schramm, Lenn;
(2012)
Aristotle's Concept of Chance as an Investigative Tool in Gersonides' Wars of the Lord
(/isis/citation/CBB001231658/)
Article
Feldman, Seymour;
(2012)
On Plural Universes: A Debate in Medieval Jewish Philosophy and the Duhem-Pines Thesis
(/isis/citation/CBB001211060/)
Article
Dominik Perler;
(2020)
Suárez on the Unity of Material Substances
(/isis/citation/CBB520750484/)
Article
Nicola Polloni;
(2020)
A Matter of Philosophers and Spheres: Medieval Glosses on Artephius’s Key of Wisdom
(/isis/citation/CBB068339054/)
Article
Novaes, Catarina Dutilh;
(2012)
Form and Matter in Later Latin Medieval Logic: The Cases of Suppositio and Consequentia
(/isis/citation/CBB001210530/)
Chapter
Glasner, Ruth;
(2011)
The Evolution of the Genre of Philosophical-Scientific Commentary: Hebrew Supercommentaries on Aristotle's Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001232576/)
Article
Wood, Rega;
(2009)
The Works of Richard Rufus of Cornwall: The State of the Question in 2009
(/isis/citation/CBB001020483/)
Chapter
David Luscombe;
(2010)
Crossing Philosophical Boundaries c. 1150–c. 1250
(/isis/citation/CBB119071619/)
Chapter
Amos Bertolacci;
(2012)
From Athens to Buhārā, to Cordoba, to Cologne: on the Transmission of Aristotle's Metaphysics in the Arab and Latin Worlds during the Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB310957077/)
Article
Nicola Polloni;
(2020)
Early Robert Grosseteste on Matter
(/isis/citation/CBB750708755/)
Article
Houser, R. E.;
(2013)
Avicenna, Aliqui, and Thomas Aquinas's Doctrine of Creation
(/isis/citation/CBB001450272/)
Article
Freudenthal, Gad;
(2008)
Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Avicennian Theory of an Eternal World
(/isis/citation/CBB000930635/)
Chapter
Zonta, Mauro;
(2006)
The Jewish Mediation in the Transmission of Arabo-Islamic Science and Philosophy to the Latin Middle Ages
(/isis/citation/CBB001020167/)
Article
Gaziel, Ahuva;
(2012)
Spontaneous Generation in Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Theology
(/isis/citation/CBB001251468/)
Book
Ingham, Mary Beth;
Dreyer, Mechthild;
(2004)
The Philosophical Vision of John Duns Scotus: An Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB000470714/)
Be the first to comment!