Philosophers on the Periphery of Ashkenaz : Jewish Intellectual Life and Philosophy in the Czech Lands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century. Officina Philosophica Hebraica Volume 4 /

Philosophers on the Periphery of Ashkenaz : Jewish Intellectual Life and Philosophy in the Czech Lands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century. Officina Philosophica Hebraica Volume 4 /

Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) had many followers among Jews living in the Mediterranean Basin, but his philosophical books were almost totally ignored by Ashkenazi Jews. Yet, the eastern periphery of Ashkenaz was an exception: in the late fourteenth century a circle of veritable philosophers emerged...

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Main Author: Visi, Tamás (Author)

Format: eBook

Language: English

Published: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2026.

Series: Early Modern History and Modern History E-Books online, Collection 2026.
Studies in Jewish History and Culture ; 86/4.

Subjects:

History.
Jewish Studies.

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Call Number: D410

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Table of Contents:
  • Preface and Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Part 1 The Thirteenth Century
  • 1 Philosophy in Ashkenaz: the Problem
  • 1 Why No Philosophy in Ashkenaz?
  • 2 Why Philosophy in Late Medieval Prague?
  • 3 Rationalization, Entzauberung, and Medieval Jewish Philosophy: Methodological Considerations
  • 2 Jewish Intellectual Life in Thirteenth-Century Bohemia
  • 1 Ashkenaz versus Kenaan: Some Remarks on the General Context of Jewish Intellectual Life in the Czech Lands
  • 2 The Beginnings of Jewish Intellectual Life in the Czech Lands
  • 3 Prayers, Midrash, and Theology: Abraham ben Azriel's Arugat Ha-Bosem
  • 4 The Incorporeality of God
  • 5 Individualism, Rationalization, and the Concept of the Soul
  • 3 The Reception of Maimonidean Philosophy in Thirteenth-Century Bohemia: Moses Taku and David the Greek
  • 1 The Controversy Concerning Resurrection in the 1200s
  • 2 Moses Taku's Assault on Philosophy
  • 3 Hanbalism in Ashkenaz?
  • 4 Taku in the Ashkenazi Context
  • 5 David the Greek
  • 6 Hebrew Grammar and Maimonidean Philosophy: The Quntres Diqduq Sefat Ever
  • 7 A Controversy Avoided
  • Part 2 The Prague Circle
  • 4 Pestilence and Philosophy in Late Medieval Ashkenaz
  • 1 The Origin and Demise of the Prague Circle
  • 2 New Intellectual Directions: Avigdor Kara on a Persecution in 1352
  • 3 A Plague Tract in Hebrew Composed in Prague
  • 4 Ashkenazi Physicians in the Late Middle Ages
  • 5 Conclusion: The Black Death as a Game Changer
  • 5 The First Philosophical School in Ashkenaz
  • 1 The Rabbis and the Astronomical Clock
  • 2 Philosophy and Sciences outside the Universities
  • 3 The Milieu of Philosophy in Ashkenaz
  • 4 The Impact of the University and Hussite Propaganda
  • 5 Philosophy and Competence in Polemics
  • 6 Philosophy as a Literary System in Fifteenth-Century Ashkenaz
  • 1 The Prestige of Philosophy
  • 2 Accommodating Philosophy to Ashkenaz: the Secret of the White Tallit
  • 3 Menahem Shalem: A Possible Source of Bruna
  • 4 Continuity and Break
  • 7 Philosophy on Trial: Controversial Themes in the Thought of the Prague Circle
  • 1 Opinions, Discourses, and Debates
  • 2 An Anonymous Critique of Philosophy: Substantial versus Contractual Truths
  • 3 Jewish Identity versus Cosmopolitan Civilization, or Why Not to Include Guide of the Perplexed in the Canon of Rabbinic Literature
  • 4 Prophetic versus Scientific Truth: A Debate about the Music of the Celestial Spheres
  • 5 Jewish Identity versus Scientific Knowledge: Narboni's Paradigm and Its Rejection by the Anonymous Letter against Philosophy
  • 6 Warding off Modernity: Mühlhausen and Shalem on the Sounds of the Celestial Spheres and on Prophecy
  • Part 3 Menahem Shalem and the Hussite Revolution
  • 8 An Excursus: Marc Richir's Theory of Symbolic Institution and the Study of Medieval Jewish Philosophy
  • 1 Symbolic Institution
  • 2 L'instituant symbolique
  • 3 On the Sublime: Rencontre and Malencontre
  • 4 The Sublime in Exegesis
  • 5 Dephasing of the Present and Reconquering Time
  • 6 A New Symbolic Institution: the Names of God in Medieval Jewish Philosophy
  • 7 Jewish Philosophy as a Symbolic and Historic Institution
  • 9 Revolution and Symbolic Institution
  • 1 Apocalyptic Thought versus Philosophy: Shalem's Commentary on an Eschatological Barayta
  • 2 Shalem's Theory of Symbolic Institution I : Hypnosis and Symbolic Institution
  • 3 Shalem's Theory of Symbolic Institutions II : Rituals as Symbolic Systems
  • 4 Bestiality and the Hussite Revolution
  • 5 From Malencontre to Rencontre : the True Worship of God
  • 6 "True Belief" in Maimonides, Shalem, and Hus
  • 10 Philosophy as a Project of Rationalization in Fifteenth-Century Prague
  • 1 Social Facts
  • 2 Maimonidean Philosophy as a Program of Rationalization
  • 3 Was the Program Realized?
  • 4 The Rationality of Rationalization
  • Conclusion: The Reception of Medieval Jewish Philosophy in the Czech Lands
  • Bibliography
  • Index of Persons
  • Index of Subjects.