Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
- PART II IDEAS, WORKS, AND WRITERS
- PART III THE LATER YEARS
- 15 The impact of Scholasticism upon Jewish philosophy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
- 16 Jewish philosophy and the Jewish-Christian philosophical dialogue in fifteenth-century Spain
- 17 Hasdai Crescas and anti-Aristotelianism
- 18 The end and aftereffects of medieval Jewish philosophy
- Guide to further reading in English
- Index
16 - Jewish philosophy and the Jewish-Christian philosophical dialogue in fifteenth-century Spain
from PART III - THE LATER YEARS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
- Frontmatter
- PART I BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
- PART II IDEAS, WORKS, AND WRITERS
- PART III THE LATER YEARS
- 15 The impact of Scholasticism upon Jewish philosophy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
- 16 Jewish philosophy and the Jewish-Christian philosophical dialogue in fifteenth-century Spain
- 17 Hasdai Crescas and anti-Aristotelianism
- 18 The end and aftereffects of medieval Jewish philosophy
- Guide to further reading in English
- Index
Summary
Fifteenth-century Hispanic Jewish philosophy has been condemned as lacking originality and creativity. According to many, the last century of Jewish philosophical activity on Iberian soil represents the swan song of the rich and illustrious history of Spanish Jewish philosophy. Scholars generally attribute this supposed intellectual sterility to the persecution that Jews suffered during this period. Speaking for many, Julius Guttmann argues, “The frightful pressure under which Spanish Jewry, the foremost bearers of Jewish philosophy, lived during the fifteenth century precluded any productive or original philosophical work.”
Although this criticism of fifteenth-century Hispanic Jewish philosophy does capture an element of its intellectual orientation, in other respects Jewish philosophy in Spain flourished in the final century before the expulsion. Relatively few philosophical works were written by Spanish Jews in the thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth century. By contrast, Hispanic Jewish thinkers in the following century composed a host of philosophical commentaries on scriptural and rabbinic texts, commentaries on Islamic and Jewish philosophers, philosophical sermons, and independent philosophical and theological treatises.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy , pp. 371 - 390Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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