Law, Reason, and Morality, in Medieval Jewish Philosophy Sadia Gaon, Bahya ibn Pakuda, and Moses Maimonides

by Jacobs, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780199542833
• ISBN10: 019954283X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The medieval Jewish philosophers Saadia Gaon, Bahya ibn Pakuda, and Moses Maimonides made significant contributions to moral philosophy in ways that remain relevant today. Jonathan Jacobs explicates shared, general features of the thought of these thinkers and also highlights their distinctive contributions to understanding moral thought and moral life. The rationalism of these thinkers is a key to their views. They argued that seeking rational understanding of Torah>'s commandments and the created order is crucial to fulfilling the covenant with God, and that intellectual activity and ethical activity form a spiral of mutual reinforcement. In their view, rational comprehension and ethical action jointly constitute a life of holiness. Their insights are important in their own right and are also relevant to enduring issues in moral epistemology and moral psychology, resonating even in the contemporary context. The central concerns of this study include (i) the relations between revelation and rational justification, (ii) the roles of intellectual virtue and ethical virtue in human perfection, (iii) the implications of theistic commitments for topics such as freedom of the will, the acquisition of virtues and vices, repentance, humility, and forgiveness, (iv) contrasts between medieval Jewish moral thought and the practical wisdom approach to moral philosophy and the natural law approach to it, and (v) the universality and objectivity of moral elements of Torah.

Author Biography

Jonathan Jacobs is Director of The Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Athens, Jerusalem, and Jewish Moral Thought	p. 10
The philosophical context of the project	p. 10
The rationalism of Jewish thought	p. 14
The relevance of Athens and Jerusalem	p. 19
The rationalism of Jewish tradition	p. 30
The significance of covenant	p. 36
Freedom of the Will, Covenant, and Moral Capability	p. 39
The essential role of free will	p. 39
Aristotle on voluntariness and responsibility for character	p. 42
Some considerations of moral epistemology	p. 46
The scope of moral capacity: the contrast with Kant	p. 50
Specific arguments for free will	p. 54
The challenge of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart	p. 67
An important contrast with Plato and Aristotle	p. 69
Moral Psychology, Revelation, and Virtue	p. 76
The basis and significance of gratitude	p. 77
Some contrasts with Aristotle's moral psychology	p. 80
The phronimos and the Law as measures of excellence	p. 88
The decisive difference made by repentance	p. 93
The role of rebuke and the importance of community	p. 102
Jewish Moral Thought and Practical Wisdom	p. 107
Aristotle's conception of practical wisdom as a basis for comparison	p. 107
The 'reasons of the commandments' and moral epistemology	p. 112
The nature of moral motivation	p. 128
The historical dimension of perfection	p. 131
Requirements, Ideals, and Moral Motivation	p. 136
Torah and fundamental principles	p. 136
Lifnim mishurat hadin and imitatio Dei	p. 139
Divine command: the issues of voluntarism and heteronomy	p. 145
Judaism and Natural Law	p. 155
Stoic roots of natural law	p. 155
Several background considerations	p. 161
Aristotle and natural law	p. 163
Natural law and theism	p. 169
Two interpretations of the Thomistic conception of natural law	p. 172
Scotus and natural law	p. 182
'The Reasons of the Commandments' and Natural Law	p. 186
Fundamental principles and codification	p. 187
A case against interpreting Jewish moral thought as involving natural law	p. 190
A case for finding natural law in Jewish moral thought	p. 197
Different considerations against the natural law interpretation	p. 206
Some differences between the Jewish and Christian contexts	p. 210
Reason, commandments, and natural law	p. 213
Bibliography	p. 222
Index	p. 227
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