In this class we shall read together texts from The Light of the Lord (Hebrew: Or Adonai), the anti-Aristotelian book by the famed Catalan Jewish philosopher, Rabbi Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340-1410/11). The Light was completed in Saragossa in 1410 and first printed in Ferrara in 1555.
Topics discussed will include space, time, the vacuum, infinity, many worlds, determinism and choice, and the knowledge and love of God. Attention will be given to Crescas’ relation to earlier medieval philosophers, such as Maimonides, Averroes, and Gersonides, and to later medieval and modern philosophers, including Spinoza. Crescas’ theories will also be analyzed with regard to other representatives of the revolutionary “new physics” in 14th-century Europe, particularly Nicole Oresme.
Schedule
Monday, April 30: Introduction & The Denial of Commandments on Beliefs https://jh.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=58f5738a-dc45-4145-b345-a8e300f77bd8
Tuesday, May 1: Infinite Space and Time
https://jh.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d6b4c44c-3151-46e4-963a-a8d500c94c35
Wednesday, May 2: Proofs of God (including Spinoza’s Discussion of Crescas’ short proof)
https://jh.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d6b4c44c-3151-46e4-963a-a8d500c94c35
Thursday, May 3: Choice and Determinism
https://jh.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b9c622de-25c2-4bff-ace2-a8d500e88d03
Friday, May 4: Love of God
https://jh.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=f50545f9-efe6-4a11-813c-a8d600da8af7
The Isaac and Leah M. Potts Memorial Lecture presents, “The Problem of Many Gods in Alghazali, Averroes, Maimonides, Crescas and Sforno,” by Warren Zev Harvey, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Location TBD.
Missed the Potts Lecture? Watch it here.
The colloquium will analyze Israeli domestic politics and foreign policy during the period in which Benjamin Netanyahu has served as Israel’s Prime Minister. The one day symposium will bring together scholars from Israel and the United States and will discuss Israel’s political parties, its economy, and its relations with the United States, Iran, Turkey, the Palestinians, the Arab World, India, China and the American Jewish Community.