Abstract
Jacob Anatoli (c. 1181–c. 1247 CE) would seem an unlikely skeptic. As the Hebrew translator responsible for bringing a complete program of Aristotelian logic to European Jewry, he is an unlikely skeptic of science. As author of one of the most influential medieval commentaries on the Bible, he is an unlikely skeptic of religious belief. Still, he advances arguments against the possibility of certain knowledge of both Aristotelian science and the tenets of belief. Yet, he does not recommend that thoughtful people reject science and uncritically adopt religious beliefs in the face of uncertainty. Nor does Anatoli recommend a suspension of judgement (epoche) that would allow for freedom from worry (ataraxia) or tranquility. Instead, he pushes constant dialogue, even debate between competing claims to knowledge. The life of the mind that Anatoli recommends, then, is a dialectical interrogation of science and religion that provides not freedom and tranquility but intellectual disquiet and toil.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 143-164 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Theoria |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 Stiftelsen Theoria
Funding
The Hebrew translation is currently being edited by Yehuda Halper and Gadi Weber as part of the project, “Hebrew Traditions of Aristotelian Dialectic” at Bar Ilan University, funded by the Israel Science Foundation. The Hebrew of this translation is independent of the Tibbonide philosophical Hebrew of Anatoli and more similar to that of other translations of Farabi, including the . Gad Freudenthal argues that this latter work was likely made in the twelfth century in “Ketav Ha‐Daʿat or Sefer Ha‐Sekhel We‐Ha‐Muskalot: The Medieval Hebrew Translations of Al‐Fārābī's Risālah Fīʾl‐ʿAql (2002). A Study in Text History and in the Evolution of Medieval Hebrew Philosophical Terminology.” 93: 29–115. Mauro Zonta thinks that this may have been translated by Moses Ibn Lagis of twelfth‐century Spain, but this is based on an attribution of a different work by Farabi in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS héb. 929 to a Moses Ibn Lanis. See Zonta, M. (1996) . Brescia: Paideia, pp. 188–193. Although the Hebrew is close to the in some scripts, there is no ambiguity in the manuscript in question, and this attribution seems to me to be unfounded. Letter on Intellect Jewish Quarterly Review La Filosofia Antica nel Medioevo Ebraico nun gimmel Middle Commentary Topics
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Bar-Ilan University | |
| Israel Science Foundation |
Keywords
- Aristotelian
- Averroes
- Averroism
- Jewish philosophy
- Maimonides
- medieval
- skepticism