'The Men of Knowledge and the Sages are Drawn, as it were, toward this Purpose by the Divine Will' ("The Guide of the Perplexed", Introduction): On Maimonides' Conception of Parables

One of Maimonides' main purposes in his Guide of the Perplexed was 'the explanation of very obscure parables occurring in the books of the prophets'. Before he attempts to fulfill this aim, Maimonides offers, in the 'Introduction' to the Guide, a theory of parables in which he explains their place in philosophical discourse. According to the common understanding of Maimonides' discussion, the role of parables in philosophy is either didactic or political: the didactic parable directs the beginner towards the matter at hand, but after he advances in his studies it is to be replaced by concepts and logical arguments, while the political parable conceals heterodox views from the multitude. Against this approach, this article suggests a third, philosophical-epistemological purpose for parables in philosophical discourse. The philosophical-epistemological parable is based on the view that certain philosophical subjects — indeed the most profound ideas of physics and especially, metaphysics — cannot be conveyed nor comprehended through arguments and abstract conceptions, but only through parables and metaphors. The author argues that Maimonides, in the 'Introduction' to the Guide and in other places in this treatise, posits the philosophical-epistemological parable as the central device in philosophical discourse and, hence, the Torah and the books of the prophets as the philosophical compositions. Included is an analysis of the epistemology that stands, according to Maimonides, at the basis of this approach to philosophical parables in general and to the parables of the prophets in particular.