Abstract
Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed was rendered into Hebrew in Southern France in 1204, triggering off a fairly strong interest in natural philosophy and in metaphysics among Hebrew-reading Jews.1 This is the context in which two Jewish scholars knowledgeable in Arabic and familiar with scientific and philosophical writings in Arabic—Judah ben Solomon ha-Cohen and Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera—thought that it would be a worthy enterprise to sum up in Hebrew significant portions of the available knowledge in those domains in order to bring them to the reach of an interested readership not knowing Arabic. Of these two thirteenth-century works, Falaquera’s De‘ot ha-Filosofim (The Opinions of the Philosophers)2 is by far the more voluminous, detailed and lucid one, and it is to it that I will devote most of my attention in what follows, although I will occasionally draw also on Judah ben Solomon’s Midrash ha-Ḥokhmah (The Quest for Wisdom)3 in order to make a comparative point.
For helpful suggestions and criticism of an early version of this article I am very grateful to Resianne Fontaine, Ruth Glasner, and Y. Tzvi Langermann.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Isadore Twersky, “Aspects of the Social and Cultural History of Provençal Jewry,” Journal of World History 11 (1968): 185–207
Joseph Shatzmiller, “Rationalisme et orthodoxie religieuse chez les Juifs provençaux au commencement du XIVe siècle,” Provence historique 22 (1972): 261–86
Gad Freudenthal, “Les sciences dans les communautés juives médiévales de Provence: Leur appropriation, leur räle,” Revue des études juives 152 (1993): 29–136
Gad Freudenthal, “Science in the Medieval Jewish Culture of Southern France,” History of Science 33 (1995): 23–58; and Mauro Zonta, La filosofia antica nel Medioevo ebraico (Brescia, 1996).
De’ot ha-Filosofim survives in two manuscripts: Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijks-universiteit MS Or. 4758 (Warn. 20) (Institute for Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts [=IMHM] 17368); Parma, MS De Rossi 164 (IMHM 13897). References to De’ot ha-Filosofim below are usually to only one manuscript (DF, L, or DF, P), but longer passages were checked in both (where the two manuscripts carry the relevant passage). I am grateful to Professor Steven Harvey and to Dr. Ruth Glasner for having made copies of different portions of these two manuscripts available to me.
See Steven Harvey, “Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera’s De’ot ha-Filosofim: Its Sources and Use of Sources,” in the present volume; Raphael Jospe, Torah and Sophia: The Life and Thought of Shem Tov Ibn Falaquera (Cincinnati, 1988)
Mauro Zonta, “Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology in Hebrew Medieval Encyclopaedias,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 6 (1996): 263–315.
Friedrich Solmsen, “Aristotle and Presocratic Cosmogony,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 63 (1958): 267; quoted from Gad Freudenthal, Aristotle’s Theory of Material Substance. Form and Soul, Heat and Pneuma (Oxford, 1995), 79.
Translated in Denis O’Brien, Theories of Weight in the Ancient World, I: Demo-critus, Weight and Size (Paris and Leiden, 1981), 366. The additions in square brackets are O’Brien’s. Quoted from Freudenthal, Aristotle’s Theory, 79–80.
See Willy Theiler, Zur Geschichte der teleologischen Naturbetrachtung bis auf Aristoteles (Zürich, 1924).
The following paragraph follows Freudenthal, Aristotle’s Theory, 104.
Friedrich Solmsen, Aristotle’s System of the Physical World (Ithaca, New York, 1960), 289.
Aristotle, On the Heavens II, 7 289a20. Trans. W.K.C. Guthrie (Cambridge, Mass., 1939).
Aristotle, On the Heavens II, 7 289a30 (Guthrie trans.).
Aristotle, Meteorology I, 3 341al2–36.
James Longrigg, “Elementary Physics in the Lyceum and Stoa,” Isis 66 (1975): 214
Paul Moraux, “Quinta essentia,” in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-encyclopädie, XXIV(1) (Stuttgart, 1963), 1204–5
John Thorp, “The Lumi-nousness of the Quintessence,” Phoenix 36 (1982): 104–23.
Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption II, 10.
Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption II, 10 337a8–12.
l6 Cf. Freudenthal, Aristotle’s Theory, 25–6.
Commentaries by Averroes are referred to in the following editions: (1) On Generation and Corruption, Epitome and Middle Commentary (=MC): Hebrew translations (Moses ibn Tibbon and Kalonymus ben Kalonymus, respectively), Averrois Cordubensis commentarium medium & epitome in Aristotelis De generatione et corruptione libros, ed. Samuel Kurland (Cambridge, Mass., 1958); Eng. trans., Averroes on Aristotle’s “De generatione et corruptione, ” Middle Commentary and Epitome, trans. Samuel Kurland (Cambridge, Mass., 1958). (2) On the Heavens, MC: Arabic, Talkhîṣ al-samâ’ wa-al-’âlam, ed. Jamâl al-Dîn al-Alawî (Fez, 1984); Hebrew (Solomon’ibn Ayyub), Berlin MS 212 (Or. Qu. 811) (IMHM, 1769); Epitome. Arabic, in Rasâ’il Ibn Rushd (Hyderabad 1947); Hebrew (Moses ibn Tibbon), Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS héb. 918 (IMHM 31960). (3) Parva naturalia, Epitome. Arabic, Averrois Cordubensis compendia librorum Aristotelis qui Parva naturalia vocantur, ed. Ḥenry Blumberg (Cambridge, Mass., 1972); Hebrew (Moses ibn Tibbon), Averrois Cordubensis compendia librorum aristotelis qui Parva naturalia vocantur, ed. Harry Blumberg (Cambridge, Mass., 1954); Eng. trans., Averroes, Epitome of “Parva naturalia, “ trans. Harry Blumberg, (Cambridge, Mass., 1961). (4) Books of Animals, treatise 16 (=On the Generation of Animals), Epitome: Hebrew (Jacob ben Makhir), Oxford, Bodleian, MS Opp. 1641 Qu (Neubauer, 1381) (IMHM, 22405). This text is not preserved in Arabic. (5) Metaphysics, Epitome: Arabic, Compendio de la metafýsica, ed. (with Spanish trans.) Carlos Quirós Rodriguez (Madrid, 1919; reprint, with an introduction by Josep Puig Montada, Cordoba, 1998); German trans., Die Metaphysik des Averroes, trans. Max Horten (Halle, 1912). (6) Meteorology, MC: Hebrew (Kalonymus ben Kalonymus), “The Middle Commentary of Averroes on Aristotle’s Meteorologica,” ed. Irving Maurice Levey, (Ph. D. diss., Harvard University, 1947).
DF, P, fol. 87v, lines 5–7 (= Averroes, MC on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 89, 11. 25–26; Eng., 101). Here and below, the sign “=” means that Fala-quera roughly follows (translates or paraphrases) the source indicated.
DF, P, fol. 88r, 11. 2–9 (DF, L, fol. 162rb). (= Averroes, ibid., 90,11. 47–48; Eng., 102; and Epitome of On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 121,1. 68–122,1. 78; Eng., 133).
I develop this subject in greater detail in my forthcoming article: “Averroes’ Later Thoughts on the Role of the Celestial Bodies in the Generation of Animate Beings.”
Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 48, 11. 9–10; Heb., fol. 62vb, 11. 16–20.
DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 7–8 (=MC on On the Heavens, Ar., 229, 1. 5; Heb., fol. 48r, 11. 1–2).
DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 15–16 (= MC on On the Heavens, Ar., 229, 11. 8–9; Heb., fol. 48r, 11. 6–8).
DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 16–20 (=MC on On the Heavens, Ar., 230, 11. 2–4; Heb., fol. 48r, 11. 12–16).
See above, 340; DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 21–22 (=Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 48, 11. 9–10; Heb., fol. 62vb, 11. 18–19).
DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 12–14 (=Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 48,11. 2–3; Heb., fol. 62vb, 11. 9–12).
DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 14–15 (=MC on On the Heavens, Ar., 229, 11. 6–8; Heb., fol. 48r, 11. 5–6).
Aristotle, On the Heavens II, 7 289a24–26. DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 21–27 (=Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 48, 11. 11–13; Heb., fol. 62vb, 11. 22–24).
DF, P, fol. 227v, 11. 25–7 (= Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 48, 11. 13–15; Heb., fol. 62vb, 11. 24–7).
DF, P, fol. 227v, 1. 27–228r, 1. 12 (=MC on the Meteorology, 16, 11. 5–14).
This reading is borne out by what Falaquera writes elsewhere. In a sort of excursus he again adduces the example of the glass flask used to ignite cotton, and comments that “it is evident that the rays have no action here, except that they prepare the air to receive the heat” (DF, P, fol. 250v, 11. 11–13). He explains that the motion “separates the particles which are dispersed throughout the air in a potentiality that is close to actuality,” and adds that this “is the reason that blowing increases the substance of fire” (loc. cit., 11. 15–16). This passage invokes three factors as being involved in generating fire: the heat dispersed in the elements, the heat of the stars, and the heat of the air itself (loc. cit., 11. 8–10).
DF, P, fol. 228r, 11. 12–13 (=Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 48, 11. 16–49:1; Heb., fol. 62vb, 11. 30–34).
DF, P, fol. 228r, 11. 14–15 (=Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 49, 11. 3–4; Heb., fol. 62vb, 11. 36–37).
The context certainly calls for heating instead of luminous. However, the Arabic text of Averroes (see next note) also carries iḍâ’ah and both Falaquera’s and Moses ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew translation have me’ir (luminous). If this is not a slip of the pen of Averroes himself, then the error must have crept into at least one family of manuscripts of the text at an early date.
DF, P, fol. 228r, 11. 15–21 (=Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 49, 11. 4–12; Heb., fol. 62vb, 1. 38–63ra, 1. 7). The passage is translated in part in Ḥenri Hugonnard-Roche, “L’Epitomé du De cacio d’Aristote par Averroès, Questions de méthode et de doctrine,” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age 51 (1984) : 29–30. Averroes’ next sentence: “For this reason the fire, whose existence in the concavity of the sphere of the moon has been demonstrated, does not shine,” is inserted by Falaquera later on, after another passage taken from the MC on On the Heavens (DF, P, fol. 228r, 11. 25–26).
Aristotle, On the Soul II, 7 418bl0 (trans. J. A. Smith); see also ibid., 419a9.
Averroes’ movement away from metaphysical, often Neoplatonically colored notions and toward Aristotle’s original conceptions is documented apropos of the theory of the intellect in Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect (New York and Oxford, 1992).
Professor Y. Tzvi Langermann kindly called my attention to the fact that the notion of “divine force” appears in the work Fî mabâdî’ al-kull ascribed to Alexander of Aphrodisias; see Shlomo Pines, “The Spiritual Force Permeating the Cosmos According to a Passage in the Treatise On the Principles of the All Ascribed to Alexander of Aphrodisias,” in idem, Studies in Arabic Versions of Greek Texts and in Medieval Science (= The Collected Works of Shlomo Pines, Vol. 2) (Jerusalem, 1986), 252–5, on 253. According to this text, the “divine force” is a certain “pneumatic force (quwwah rû ḥâniyyah) that permeates all the parts of the world” thereby “bind[ing] (all) the (parts) of it to one another” (ibid.). Fi mabâdV al-kull thus allots the “divine force” explicitly the role it has implicitly in Falaquera’s system, namely to reestablish the interconnectedness of the cosmos. The notion of “divine force” may be a descendent of the Stoic theory of pneuma (Pines, ibid., 254–5), which indeed set a great stake on the unity of the cosmos. This subject clearly calls for more research.
Aristotle, Meteorology III, 6 378a16–378b4. On this theory cf. D.E. Eichholz, “Aristotle’s Theory of the Formation of Metals and Minerals,” Classical Quarterly 43 (1949): 141–6; reprint, idem, Theophrastus, De lapidibus (Oxford, 1965), 38–47.
DF, P, fol. 122r, 11. 1–4.
Mauro Zonta, “Mineralogy, Botany and Zoology in Hebrew Medieval Encyclopaedias” (above, n. 4), 282.
It must be remarked, though, that Falaquera does not explicitly ascribe this “divine force” to the stars other than the sun.
Y. Tzvi Langermann, “Gersonides on the Magnet and the Heat of the Sun,” Studies on Gersonides—A Fourteenth-Century Jewish Philosopher-Scientist, ed. Gad Freudenthal (Leiden, 1992), 267–84. Gersonides in all likelihood borrowed the notion of “divine force” from Averroes, with whose views he became familiar either through De’ot ha-Filosofim or, more probably, through Moses ibn Tibbon’s Hebrew trans, of the Epitome of the On the Heavens (see above, n. 17).
Add ha-rne’uleh with DF, L.
DF, P, fol. 88r, 11. 22–27 (DF, L, fol. 162va) (= Averroes, MC on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 91,11. 66–70; Eng., 103).
DF, P, fol. 88r, 1. 27–88v, 1. 2 (= Averroes, ibid., 91, 11. 70–72; Eng., 104).
DF, P, fol. 88v, 11. 3–4 (= Averroes, ibid., 91, 11. 73–74; Eng., 104).
DF, P, fol. 88v, 11. 4–11 (DF, L, fol. 162va f.) (= Averroes, ibid., 91, 11. 74–80; Eng., 104).
David M. Balme, “Teleology and Necessity,” in Philosophical Issues in Aristotle’s Biology, ed. Allan Gotthelf and James G. Lennox (Cambridge, 1987), 275–85
John M. Cooper, “Aristotle on Natural Teleology,” in Language and Logos: Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy Presented to G.E.L. Owen, ed. Malcolm Schofield and Martha Craven Nussbaum (Cambridge, 1982), 197–222; idem, “Hypothetical Necessity and Natural Teleology,” in Gotthelf and Lennox, Philosophical Issues, 243–74
Allan Gotthelf, “The Place of Good in Aristotle’s Natural Teleology,” in Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 4, ed. John J. Cleary and Daniel C. Shartin (Lanham, Md., and New York, 1989), 113–39. For a different, more “medieval” view, cf. Charles H. Kahn, “The Place of the Prime Mover in Aristotle’s Teleology,” in Aristotle On Nature And Living Things, ed. Allan Gotthelf (Pittsburgh, 1985), 183–205.
DF, P, fol. 88v, 11. 19–21 (= Averroes, MC on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 92, 11. 88–89; Eng., 105).
DF, P, fol. 88v, 11. 25–26.
“On this basis one can answer a doubt raised by some who have argued: how is it that the simple bodies [i.e. the elements] have not separated off from one another throughout this long lapse of time, so as not to be intermingled or mixed? In fact, they [the elements] are contraries and it is in the nature of each of them to be in its proper place. The reason that they are moved one to the other’s place and that they are mixed with one another is only the translational motion. Were it not for this circular motion it would indeed have been necessary that they separate off during that long time. However, they are moved to one another’s place through this double motion.” (DF, P, fol. 88v, 11. 13–18 [DF, L, fol. 162vb] [= Averroes, MC on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 92, 11. 82–87; Eng., 104]). On the history of this entire issue, see Gad Freudenthal, “(Al-) Chemical Foundations for Cosmological Ideas: Ibn Sînâ on the Geology of an Eternal World,” in Physics, Cosmology and Astronomy, 1300–1700: Tension and Accommodation, ed. Sabetai Unguru (Dordrecht, 1991), 47–73.
DF, P, fol. 89r, 1. 3 (= Averroes, Epitome of On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 123, 1. 1; Eng., 135). Also: “The ultimate causes [for the emergence of stretches of land from the sea, or the submergence of land in the sea] are the motion of the sun along its inclined sphere and the motion of the other stars, just as these are the ultimate causes of the generation of and corruption of all other [sublunar] existents” (DF, P, fol. 100v, 11. 19–21).
DF, P, fols. 288v, 11. 2–19 and 1. 26–289r, 1. 3 (= Averroes, Epitome of the Metaphysics, Ar., 166–8, pars. 74–77; German, 201–3). I am grateful to Professor Mauro Zonta for his help in locating this passage. Prof. Zonta added that the passage is inspired by Alexander of Aphrodisias’ De Providentia.
DF, P, fol. 289r, 11. 3–5 (= Averroes, Epitome of the Metaphysics, Ar., 168, sec. 77; German 203–4).
The MS has ha-sibbah ha-po’elet (1. 28); but at 1. 26 we read ha-teva’po’el mipnei devar mah. Therefore, ha-sibbah ha-po’elet here does not refer to the efficient cause, but to the cause acting “for some purpose,” i.e. to the final cause.
Dis L, fol. 21 Ora, 11. 28–33.
Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals IV, 10, 777bl7–778al0.
DF, P, fol. 87v, 11. 21–22 (= Averroes, MC on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 89, 11. 38–39; Eng., 102).
DF, P, fol. 87v, 11. 23–25 (= Averroes, ibid., 90, 11. 42–43; Eng., 102).
DF, P, fols. 87v, 1. 26–88r, 1. 1 (= Averroes, ibid., 90, 11. 4546 [qeṣ manui]; Eng., 102).
DF, P, fol. 88r, 11. 2–12 (= Averroes, ibid., 90, 11. 4748; Eng., 102; and Epitome of On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 122–3; Eng., 134).
DF, P, fol. 88r, 11. 10–11 (= Averroes, Epitome of On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 122,1. 85–123, 1. 87; Eng., 134).
MH, fol. 83r, 1. 17.
MH, fol. 59v, 11. 26–29.
MH, fol. 59v, 1. 29.
Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, trans. Shlomo Pines (Chicago, 1963), 11,12, 280.
On Maimonides’ attitude to astrology see Y. Tzvi Langermann, “Maimonides* Repudiation of Astrology,” Maimonidean Studies 2 (1991): 123–58; Gad Freudenthal, “Maimonides’ Stance on Astrology in Context: Cosmology, Physics, Medicine, and Providence,” in Moses Maimonides: Physician, Sdentisi, and Philosopher, ed. Fred Rosner and Samuel S. Kottek (Northvale, N.J., 1993), 77–90.
Falaquera’s source for this discussion is again Averroes (Epitome of On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 126; Eng., 137; and Middle Commentary on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 97, 11. 82 ff.; Eng., 109–10). In the Epitome of the Parva naturalia, too, Averroes refers to the “the proponents of the cyclical recurrence” (Arabic, 79, line 3; Heb., 51, 11. 11–15; Eng., 46). Very interestingly, Falaquera more than once states that the ba’alei ha-haqqafot are called in their (own) tongue: ha-azdawânât (or: ha-izdawânât) (DF, P, fol. 91r, 11. 25–26 [= DF, L, fol. 164rb]) or ha-azrognât (or: ha-izrognât) (DF, P, fol. 202r, 11. 25–26). On the difficulty of determining the Arabic original of this term, as found in Averroes, see the Epitome of the Parva naturalia, Ar., 79, 1. 3, and the corresponding note (157–8, n. 44). Professor Dimitri Gutas most kindly undertook a research on the subject and informed me of its results as follows (January 23, 1999): “It appears that the unintelligible Arabic word is a transliteration of the Greek horoskopion (horoscope), of which the Arabic would be, as in the manuscripts, huruzqâbât, changing only the waw after the zayn into a qaf a relatively common mistake in Arabic manuscripts. This is suggested by Helmut Gätje, who has a critical edition of Averroes’ text, Die Epitome der Parva naturalia des Averroes (Wiesbaden, 1961), 84, line 2, and apparatus. This fits perfectly the context of the discussion in Averroes’ text. The ‘eternal return’ interpretation of the Hebrew translators is an attempt to explain this word, but it is actually derived from what Averroes says just after this word, namely wâjibûn an ta’uda al-ashkhâṣu al-maḥsûsâtu bi-a’yaniha. The expression ‘âda bi-aynihi (“he reverted to a previous state”) was glossed as raja’a ‘alâ aqâbihi, a roughly synonymous expression; this is why Samuel ibn Tibbon and Moses ibn Tibbon translate the two Arabic expressions with the same Hebrew expression, as Blumberg shows in his n. 44. Obviously, Moses ibn Tibbon and Falaquera, not knowing the expression huruzqâbât (however it was actually spelled in the manuscripts they were using), interpreted it in terms of what Averroes says right after it.... The big question, and I have no answer for it, is why Averroes would have used that transliterated term in his commentary. Obviously he must have had it in his archetype, a translation of the Parva naturalia. Since he does not explain it, perhaps he did not understand the word either. Now as far as I can tell, there are no horoscopes mentioned in On Divination in Sleep (the treatise Averroes seems to be commenting upon in that passage). What sort of translation of the Parva naturalia then was it? In this regard, Pines’s article, “The Arabic Recension of Parva naturalia and the Philosophical Doctrine Concerning Veridical Dreams According to al-Risâla al-Manâ-miyya and Other Sources” (Israel Oriental Studies 4 [1974]: 104–53; reprinted in Studies in Arabic Versions of Greek Texts, 96–145), is valuable: he suggests there was another recension of the Parva naturalia available in Arabic, one that has not been preserved in Greek. The present piece of evidence would seem to corroborate yet again Pines’ keen eye.”
“It has become clear that the ultimate cause of all ordered motions of natural things—whether the existence upon earth of plants and animals, or the existence in the air of the meteorological phenomena—is the motion of the spherical bodies” (DF, P, fol. 92r, 11. 14–16).
DF, P, fol. 91r, 1. 27–91v, 1. 10 (= Averroes, Epitome of On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 126, 11. 52–62; Eng., 137–8).
DF, P, fol. 91r, 11. 13–27 (= Averroes, MC on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 97, 1. 82–98, 1. 91; Eng., 109–10).
DF, P, fols. 202r, 1. 6–203r, 1. 2.
MH, fol. 60r, II. 4–5 and 12–19 (= Averroes, MC on On Generation and Corruption, Heb., 97, 11. 67–75; Eng., 109).
MH, fol. 60r, 11. 19–20 (= Averroes, ibid., 98, 11. 86–7; Eng., 109).
MH, fol.60r, 11.21–22.
MH, fol. 60r, 11. 22–24. Judah’s statement recalls a similar claim made by Joseph ibn Kaspi in the beginning of the fourteenth century and studied by the late Shlomo Pines (see his “Joseph ibn Kaspi’s and Spinoza’s Opinions on the Probability of a Restoration of the Jewish State” [Hebrew], in idem, Bein Maḥa-shevet Yisra’el le-Maḥashevet he-’Ammim [Jerusalem, 1977], 277–305). Ibn Kaspi bases his prediction that a Jewish state will be reestablished on the consideration that the number of all possible states of affairs (the number of all possible combinations of the world’s basic building blocks) is finite, so that necessarily every combination that had existed in the past will come to exist again. Judah’s consideration is similar in that it postulates a finite number of possible stellar positions and, on the basis of the astrological doctrine, deduces from it that a Jewish kingdom will come to be again. Pines opined that Ibn Kaspi’s belief is unrelated to theories of a cyclical return of time and of history (ibid., 297), but Judah’s case shows that a certain version of such a cyclical theory could be based on considerations similar to those of Ibn Kaspi.
DF, P, fol. 66r, 11. 21–25 (= Averroes, Epitome of On the Heavens, Ar., 14; Heb., fol. 57ra). This argument obviously makes the celestial spheres, or rather their motions, into the “remote cause” of the earth’s being at the center of the world. Cf. DF, P, fol. 70v, 11. 11–20.
DF, P, fol. 66r, 1. 25–66v, 1. 1 (= Averroes, ibid, Ar., 14; Heb., fol. 57ra; see also Ar., 49; Heb., fol. 63ra). A part of this passage is translated in Hugonnard-Roche, “L’Épitomé du De caelo d’Aristote par Averroès” (above, n. 35), 25. See also DF, P, fol. 191r, 11. 6–9: “The white color is generated when the pure fire combines with the element that is of the utmost purity, namely the air; the black color is generated out of turbid fire, when it combines with the [element] earth, which is of little purity.” Falaquera here quotes Averroes, Epitome of the Parva naturalia, Ar., 13,11. 6–8; Heb., 9, 11. 5–7; Eng., 10.
DF, P, fol. 66v, 11.17–20.
DF, P, fol. 66v, 11. 25–27.
DF, P, fol. 67r, 11. 3–4. Falaquera notes that this conclusion is in accordance with Alexander’s affirmation, but he remarks that Alexander made his statement for the wrong reason (DF, P, fol. 67r, 11. 1–2).
DF, P, fol. 228r, 11. 10–11; cf. also immediately below.
For what follows see DF, P, fol. 226v (= Averroes, MC on On the Heavens, Ar., 199ff.; Heb., fol. 43a); cf. Ruth Glasner, “The Early Stages in the Evolution of Gersonides’ The Wars of the Lord,” Jewish Quarterly Reviexv 87 [1996]: 23, n. 89). See also Aristotle, On the Heavens II, 3.
DF, P, fol. 228r, 11. 10–11; see above, 347.
DF, P, fol. 95r, 1. 27–95v, 1. 26.
DF, P, fol. 95v, 1. 26–96r, 1. 3.
Aristotle, On the Heavens IV, 3 310b14–15; see also Mary Louise Gill, Aristotle on Substance (Princeton, New Jersey, 1989), 239.
DF, P, fol. 27lv, 11. 14–17 (= Averroes, Epitome of the Metaphysics, Ar., 122 [par. 70]; German, 145). See also DF, P, fol. 85r, 11. 17–20, and 111v, 11. 21–22.
DF, P, fol. 250v, 11. 18–22.
Aristotle, On the Generation of Animals II, 3 736b30 ff. Cf. Freudenthal, Aristotle’s Theory (above, n. 5), 37 ff., 106–119.
Freudenthal, Aristotle’s Theory, 25–6.
See Gad Freudenthal, “Averroes’ Changing Mind on the Generation of Animate Beings,” in the Proceedings of the Congreso internacional VIII centenario de Averroes (Cordoba, 9–11 December 1998), ed. Ahmed Hasnaoui (forthcoming).
DF, L, fol. 246ra, 11. 12–14, and 246rb, 11. 3–4. Falaquera here follows Averroes, Epitome of the Book of Animals, Heb., 229r.
DF, L, fol. 246rb, 11. 3–4. Cf. Galen, On the Natural Faculties 1.6 (trans. A.J. Brock [Cambridge, Mass., 1916], 25).
DF, L, fol. 246va, 11. 16–22.
DF, L, fol. 246va, 11. 22–27.
DF, L, fol.246va, 11. 30–31.
DF, L, fol. 246va, 11.31–33.
For a forceful statement of this, see Klaus Oehler, “Ein Mensch zeugt einen Menschen: Über den Missbrauch der Sprachanalyse in der Aristotelesforschung,” in his Antike Philosophie und byzantinisches Mittelalter (München, 1969), 95–145. Cf. also Freudenthal, Aristotle’s Theory, 38–9, 45–6, 188.
DF, P, fol. 250r, 1. 14–250v, 1. 5. This entire passage is taken from (the later version of) Averroes, Epitome of the Metaphysics, Ar., 50 (cf. also apparatus, 293–4); German, 57. On the existence of two versions of this passage, see Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect (above, n. 37), 239. For Averroes’ changing views on the role of the active intellect, see also the article referred to above, n. 93. See also DF, P, fol. 85r, 1. 17.
Falaquera seems to write loosely here, for in fact these powers overflow not from the heavenly bodies, made of the fifth substance, but from the intellects or souls of the heavenly bodies and their spheres.
See Jospe, Torah and Sophia (above, n. 4), 153, referring to Sefer ha-Mevaqqesh (Amsterdam, 1775), 82–3; Dov Schwartz, Astrologyah u-Magyah (Ramat-Gan, 1999), chap. 4; idem, “Is it Possible to Write a History of Jewish Thought?” (Hebrew), Jewish Studies 38 (1998): 136–7.
See e.g. Thérèse-Anne Druart, “Astronomie et astrologie selon Farabi,” Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 20 (1978): 43–7; idem, “Le second traité de Farabi sur la validité des affirmations basées sur la position des étoiles,” Bulletin de philosophie médiévale 21 (1979) : 47–51.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Freudenthal, G. (2000). Providence, Astrology, and Celestial Influences on the Sublunar World in Shem-Tov in Falaquera’s De’ot Ha-Filosofim . In: Harvey, S. (eds) The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy. Amsterdam Studies in Jewish Thought, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9389-2_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9389-2_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5428-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-9389-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive