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57 Arabic Literature of the Jews Arabic Philosophy

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

57

the theory of the intellect. The Peripatetics taught that the human soul was only an aptitude a faculty capable of attaining every variety of passive perfection and that through information and virtue it became qualified for union with the active intellect,

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latter emanates from God. To admit this theory would-be to deny the immortality of the soul Wherefore the (see Alexander of Aphkodisias). Motekallamin had, before anything else, to establish a system of philosophy to demonstrate the creation of matter, and they adopted to that end the theory of atoms as enunciated by Democritus. They taught that atoms possess neither quantity nor extension. Originally atoms were created by God, and are created now as occasion seems to reArgument quire. Bodies come into existence or die, through the aggregation or the for Creation, sunderance of these atoms. But this theory did not remove the objections For, indeed, of philosophy to a creation of matter. if it be supposed that God commenced His work at a certain definite time by His "will," and for a certain definite object, it must be admitted that He was imperfect before accomplishing His will, or before In order to obviate this diffiattaining His object. culty, the Motekallamin extended their theory of the atoms to Time, and claimed that just as Space is con-

which

stituted of

atoms and vacuum, Time, likewise,

is

con-

The creation stituted of small indivisible moments. of the world once established, it was an easy matter for them to demonstrate the existence of a Creator, unique, omnipotent, and omniscient. Toward the middle of the eighth century a dissenting sect still in existence to-day called KaIn order to give a philoraites, arose in Judaism. sophical tinge to their polemics with their opponents, they borrowed the dialectic forms of the Motekal-

and that

He

is

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lamin, and even adopted their name (Mas'udi, in "Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Royale," viii. 349-351) and thus transplanted the Kalam gradually to Jewish soil, to undergo the same transformations there as among the Arabs. The oldest religio-philosophical work preserved ,

that of Saadia (893-942), "Emunot we-De'ot" (Book of Beliefs and Opinions). In this work Saadia treats of the quesSaadia. tions that interested the Motekallamin so deeply such as the creation of matter, the unity

is

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of God, the divine attributes, the soul, etc.— and he For to Saadia criticizes the philosophers severely. there is no problem as to creation: God created the world ex nilrilo, just as Scripture attests; and he con-

Motekallamin in reference to atoms, which theory, he declares, is just as contrary tests the theory of the

and religion as the theory of the philosophers professing the eternity of matter. To prove the unity of God, Saadia uses the demonstrations of the Motekallamin. Only the attributes of essence (sifat-al-datiat) can be ascribed to God, but not the attributes of action (sifat-al-af 'aliyat). The soul is a to reason

substance more delicate even than that of the celesHere Saadia controverts the Motekaltial spheres. (comlamin, who considered the soul an "accident" one pare "Moreh," i. 74), and employs the following "Only a of their premises to justify his position: accident" substance can be the substratum of an

is, of a non-essential property of things). Saadia argues: "If the soul be an accident only, it can itself have no such accidents as wisdom, joy, love,"

(that

Saadia was thus in every way a supporter of Kalam; and if at times he deviated from its doctrines, it was owing to his religious views; just as the Jewish and Moslem Peripatetics stopped short in their respective Aristotelianism whenever there was danger of wounding orthodox religion. Jewish philosophy entered upon a new period in the eleventh century. The works of the Peripatetics Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) on the one side, and the " Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity " a transformed Kalam founded on Neoplatonic

etc.

the

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theories

— on

influence

the other side, exercised considerable

upon Jewish thinkers of that two leading philosophers

The age. of the pe-

The

riod are Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron) and Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda the former standing upon a purely philotonic Philoso- sophical platform, the latter upon a religio-philosophical one; and both phy. Both beattaining similar results. lieve in a universal matter as the substratum of all (except God) that exists but Bahya goes further and

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Neopla-



determines what that matter is: it is Darkness (" Ma'ani al-Nafs," translated by Broyde, p. 17). But this matter did not exist from all eternity, as the It is easy to perceive here the Peripatetics claimed. growth of the Peripatetic ideas as to substance and

form but influenced by religion, these ideas are so shaped as to admit the non-eternity of matter. In all that pertains to the soul and its action, Gabirol and Bahya are undoubtedly influenced by the "Brethren of Purity." Man (the microcosm) is in

every way like the celestial spheres (the macrocosm). Just as the heavenly spheres receive their motion from the universal soul which is a simple substance emanating from God so man receives his motion from the rational soul another simple substance

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emanating from

Him (i.e.,

p. 60;

Munk, "Melanges

de Philosophie," p. 266). In fact, creation came through emanation, and in the following sequence

The active intellect; (2) the universal soul— which moves the heavenly sphere (3) nature (4) darkness— which at the beginning was but a capacity to receive form (5) the celestial spheres (6; the

(1)









heavenly bodies; (7) fire; (8) air; (9) water; (10) earth ("Ma'ani al-Nafs," 72; compare Munk, I.e., p.

But as regards the question of the attributes which occupy the Jewish and Moslem theologians so much, Bahya, in his work on ethics, "Hobot 201).

ha-Lebabot," written in. Arabic under the title of "Kitab al-Hidayat fi faraidh al Kulub" (The Duties of the Heart), is of the same opinion as the Motazilites, that the attributes by which one attempts to describe God should be taken in a negative sense, as excluding the opposite attributes. With reference to Gabirol, a positive opinion can " " not be given on this point, as his Fons Vita: does not deal with the question but there is reason to

believe that he felt the influence of the Asharites, who admitted attributes. In fact, in his poetical

philosophy, entitled "Keter Malkut" (The Crown in of Royalty), Gabirol uses numerous attributes describing God.