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Avenger Averroism

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

a Neapolitan physician, also named Kalonymus ben David, and published in Venice, 1527. This " Confutation " contains a few contradictions of statements made elsewhere by him, but such in-

by no means infrequent in other Averroes. The change of views thus

consistencies are

writings of

evidenced gave rise to the legend that Averroes had embraced Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism in succession, and that he wrote the notorious work, "De Tribus Impostoribus." In similar strain is the assertion by a writer of the seventeenth century, that the " Confutation of the Confutation " was actually written by Gazzali himself, who thus secretly furnished a defense against his own attacks upon philosophy, these attacks having been prepared at the command of a fanatical king. Be all this as it may, Averroes' importance as a philosopher was universally acknowledged by Jewish thinkers. Not even his opinions antagonistic to Judaism could

prevent their admiration of his genius.

Admired in Jewish

When, however, Averroes

fiercely as-

Jewish authors are sometimes found to side with the latter as being nearer to Judaism and Hasdai Crescas, who mournfully notes the havoc wrought in Jewish circles by philosophy through laxity of observance, vehemently denounces both Aristotle and his commentator Averroes. Crescas must, however, have been blinded by his zeal when he terms Averroes a mere chatterer. Levi ben Gerson and Moses Narboni may with all propriety be called followers of Averroes for with them, too, the claims of the peripatetic philosophy as formulated by him seem to be rated higher than the claims of revelation. sailed Avicenna,

Circles.





But Averroes' absolute sovereignty in the fourteenth century was soon followed by his decline. Platonism displaced Aristotelianism, and with the latter vanished all traces of Averroism. A. L6. k.

AVERROISM

Averroes, like his contemporary yet they differed greatly in matters of faith. While Maimonides, with all his admiration for Aristotle, dared to contradict his theories, or at least sought to attenuate them when they were in direct opposition to religion, Averroes indorsed them to their utmost extent, and seemed even to take pleasure in emphasizing them. " God, " says Averroes, " has declared a truth for all men that requires for understanding no intellectual superiority; in a language that can be interpreted by every human soul according to its The expositors of religious capability and temper. metaphysics are therefore theenemies of truereligion, because they made it a matter of syllogism " (J. Mailer, "PhilosophieundTheologie," including the AraIn expounding what he bic text, pp. 104 et seg.). thought to be the doctrines of Aristotle, it made no difference to Averroes whether they were or were not Thus in harmony with those taught by the Koran. Averroes asserts again and again the eternity of the universe although, as Maimonides demonstrated in his "Guide" (ii. 28, 131-127), Aristotle himself is not very decisive on this point. Averroes goes still further and declares that not only is matter eternal,

Maimonides, was a

strict Peripatetic





but that form even is potentially existent, otherwise there would be creation ex nihilo (" De Coelo et

Mundo,"

Maimonides advocates man's abp. 197). solute free-will, but Averroes restricted that freedom. " Our soul, " says the latter, " can have preferences indeed, but its acts are limited by the fatality of exterior circumstances for if its deeds were the production of its will alone, they would be a creation independent of the first cause, or God " (Joseph

Arabic text, p. 110). Maimonides, like Avicenna, places the existence of all creatures in the category of the possible that of God, in that of the necessary (" Moreh," ii., Introduction, propositions 19 and 20). Averroes combats Avicenna's classification for the simple reason that, every being having a cause, its existence is necessary (" Destructio Destructions '" at the end of the "Disputatio," x.). Mliller, ib.



However,

it

was due

to

Maimonides that the phi-

losophy of Averroes found admirers during four centuries among the Jews, who by their translations and commentaries preserved his writings from destruction and transmitted them to the Christian world. But if Averroes owed the preservation of his writings to the Jews, Jewish literature, in its turn, is indebted to him, directly and indirectly, for many valuable contributions. In addition to the translations of Averroes' works and commentaries on them which in themselves form a fairly large library the thirteenth, fourteenth, and sixteenth centuries witnessed the production of numerous essays and The first to introtreatises inspired by Averroism.

—

duce his philosophy to Jewish literature was Samuel ibn Tibbon, the same who translated Maimonides' "Moreh." Tibbon published, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, an " Encyclopedia of Philosophy," which frequently is nothing but literal extracts from Averroes, whom the author declares to be the most reliable interpreter of ArisFirst

Translators.

totle.

the

A

little later,

1232,

first real translation,

Abba Mari

appeared

by Jacob ben

Anatoli, a son-in-law of

Ibn Tibbon. He was a Provencal, living in Naples, and engaged by Frederick II. to popularize Arabian science. In 1260, Moses ibn Tibbon translated nearly the whole of the Short Commentary. About the same time, Solomon ben Joseph ben Job, originally from Granada, but living in Beziers, translated of the Short Commentary that on Aristotle's treatise, "De Coelo et Mundo," under In 1284, Zerahia ben the title of DblJJiT) D'DBVI. Isaac of Barcelona translated of the Middle Commentaries that on Aristotle's "Physics," as well as Averroes' treatises, " De Coelo et Mundo " and " Metaphysics." The same Anatoli translated in 1298 Averroes' "Abridgment of Logic," under the title of TlVp JVJn; and in 1300, under the title of tyn ^Jjn 'D, the commentaries upon books xi.-xix. of the "History of Animals. Other writers of this century that expounded Averroes were Judah ben Solomon Cohen of Toledo, author of "Peripatetic Encyclopedia," 1247; and Shem-Tob ben Joseph b. Falaquera (1224-95), who inserts lengthy extracts from Averroes in his books, the "Moreh ha-Moreh," "Hanhagat ha-Guf wehaNefesh," and the "Sefer Hama'alot." The study of Averroism was so wide-spread that, not content with the foregoing translations, the first