THE JEWISH PHILOSOPHY 



ides, or as his own people knew him, Moses Ben 

 Maimoun, born at Cordova 1135; d. 1204. 



To the deepest knowledge of the religious litera- 

 ture of the Jews he added that of all the profane 

 sciences then accessible to the Arabian world. Be- 

 sides his other numerous works, his great work, 

 "The Guide to the Erring" (Le Guide des EgarSs), 

 has powerfully contributed to spread among the Jews 

 the study of the peripatetic philosophy. This work 

 served as an intermediary between the Arabs and 

 Christian Europe, and produced an incontestable in- 

 fluence on the scholastic philosophy. Its influence 

 is felt to-day in the synagogue. It has survived 

 peripatetism, but by its teachings the great geniuses 

 of the modern Hebrews Spinosa, Mendelssohn, 

 Solomon Maimoun and many others were introduced 

 to the Aristotelian philosophy. His views upon most 

 questions were very similar to those of Averrhoes, and 

 it was to the efforts of Maimonedes that the Arabian 

 philosophy was made known to Christendom. 



Christian scholasticism considered Maimonides one 

 of the greatest thinkers that the world had seen for 

 many centuries. Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas 

 Aquinas were his disciples. He rejected all assimila- 

 tion of God with his creatures. " One could say 

 what God was not, but could not say what he was." 

 He placed little importance upon the idea of a Provi- 



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