Defining Maimonides’ Aristotelianism

Abstract

The Aristotelian legacy presented itself to Maimonides in three distinct layers between which his historical sense knew well to differentiate: the authentic writings of Aristotle; the Byzantine commentaries; and the Muslim Aristotelians. With characteristic sensitivity, he gave no credence to any of the pseudo-Aristotelian writings which had played an important role in Jewish Neoplatonism. In this respect he was far more of a purist than al-Farabi (who, for exoteric purposes, drew on the Theology of Aristotle in order to harmonize Plato and Aristotle) and Averroes (who, for similar reasons, invoked a “metaphysical treatise by Aristotle” as yet unidentified and also quoted Ps.-Aristotle, De mundo). The passages Maimonides cites verbatim — “This is what he Aristotle actually says” — from the genuine Aristotelian corpus are not always models of accuracy but this is due to the liberties occasionally taken by the Arabic version of the text which, on the whole, is remarkably faithful to the original.