Science in the Medieval Hebrew and Arabic Traditions

Gad Freudenthal is Director of Research at the CNRS, Paris, France.

• Contents: Introduction; Science in the Medieval Hebrew Tradition: Socio-Cultural Considerations: Science in the medieval Jewish culture of Southern France; Holiness and defilement: the ambivalent perception of philosophy by its opponents in the early 14th century. Maimonides, Gersonides and Some Others: Maimonides' stance on astrology in context: cosmology, physics, medicine, and providence; Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides), 1288-1344; Sauver son âme ou sauver les phénomènes: sotériologie, épistémologie et astronomie chez Gersonide; Levi ben Gershom as a scientist: physics, astrology and eschatology; Sur la partie astronomique du Liwyat Hen de Lévi ben Abraham ben Hayyim; The distinction between two R. Joseph b. Joseph Nahmias - the commentator and the astrologer; Two notes on Sefer Meyashsher 'aqob by Alfonso, alias Abner of Burgos; Al-Fârâbî on the foundations of geometry. Reverberations of Greek Theory of Matter in Arabic and Hebrew: The theory of the opposites and an ordered universe: physics and metaphysics in Anaximander; (Al-)Chemical foundations for cosmological ideas: Ibn Sînâ on the geology of an eternal world; Stoic physics in the writings of R. Saadia Gaon al-Fayyumi and its aftermath in medieval Jewish mysticism; L'Héritage de la physique stoïcienne dans la pensée juive médiévale (Saadia Gaon, les Dévôts rhénans, Sefer ha-Maskil; The medieval astrologization of Aristotle's biology: Averroes on the role of the celestial bodies in the generation of animate bodies; Providence, astrology, and celestial influences on the sublunar world in Shem-Tov Ibn Falaquera's De`ot ha-Filosofim; Index.

'... this collection is a very impressive piece of learning; and I recommend it to all readers of Aestimatio interested in the history of science in general, and the study of different scientific themes in Medieval Arabic and Jewish sciences in particular.' Aestimatio