LEADER 03993nam 2200625Ia 450 001 9910463655103321 005 20211019020426.0 010 $a0-674-07597-8 010 $a0-674-07594-3 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674075948 035 $a(CKB)3390000000036830 035 $a(EBL)3301312 035 $a(OCoLC)843880820 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000886347 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11487396 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000886347 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10816835 035 $a(PQKB)11671879 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301312 035 $a(DE-B1597)209757 035 $a(OCoLC)853239905 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674075948 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301312 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10713639 035 $a(EXLCZ)993390000000036830 100 $a20121015d2013 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurnn#---|u||u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe matter and form of Maimonides' guide$b[electronic resource] /$fJosef Stern 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cHarvard University Press$d2013 215 $a1 online resource (448 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-674-05160-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tEditions and Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Primary Sources --$t1. Matter and Form --$t2. Maimonides' Theory of the Parable --$t3. The Parable of Adamic Perfection --$t4. Physical Matter and Its Limitations on Intellects --$t5. Maimonidean Skepticism I --$t6. Maimonidean Skepticism II --$t7. In the Inner Chamber of the Ruler's Palace --$t8. The Embodied Life of an Intellect --$t9. Excrement and Exegesis, or Shame over Matter --$tReferences --$tAcknowledgments --$tIndex 330 $aMaimonides' Guide of the Perplexed has traditionally been read as an attempt to harmonize reason and revelation. Another, more recent interpretation takes the contradiction between philosophy and religion to be irreconcilable, and concludes that the Guide prescribes religion for the masses and philosophy for the elite. Moving beyond these familiar debates, Josef Stern argues that the perplexity addressed in this famously enigmatic work is not the conflict between Athens and Jerusalem but the tension between human matter and form, between the body and the intellect. Maimonides' philosophical tradition takes the perfect life to be intellectual: pure, undivided contemplation of all possible truths, from physics and cosmology to metaphysics and God. According to the Guide, this ideal cannot be realized by humans. Their embodied minds cannot achieve scientific knowledge of metaphysics, and their bodily impulses interfere with exclusive contemplation. Closely analyzing the arguments in the Guide and its original use of the parable as a medium of philosophical writing, Stern articulates Maimonides' skepticism about human knowledge of metaphysics and his heterodox interpretations of scriptural and rabbinic parables. Stern shows how, in order to accommodate the conflicting demands of the intellect and the body, Maimonides creates a repertoire of spiritual exercises, reconceiving the Mosaic commandments as training for the life of the embodied mind. By focusing on the philosophical notions of matter and form, and the interplay between its literary form and subject matter, Stern succeeds in developing a unified, novel interpretation of the Guide. 606 $aJewish philosophy 606 $aJudaism$xDoctrines 606 $aPhilosophy, Medieval 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aJewish philosophy. 615 0$aJudaism$xDoctrines. 615 0$aPhilosophy, Medieval. 676 $a181/.06 700 $aStern$b Josef$f1949-$0474581 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910463655103321 996 $aThe matter and form of Maimonides' guide$92458958 997 $aUNINA