Philosophy › Faith and reason › Philosophy in the Islamic world (falsafa)
Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed
1138–1204· Philosopher· Reality, mind & God
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
Jewish philosopher and legal scholar whose Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190) reconciled the Hebrew Bible with Aristotle's philosophy.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
The idea: faith and reason agree once scripture is read correctly. Born in Córdoba, Moses Maimonides fled persecution and became a court physician in Cairo. He wrote the Guide in Arabic for a student torn between the Torah and Aristotle. Biblical talk of God's 'hand' is metaphor, and we can truly say only what God is not. Neither creation nor an eternal world can be proven, he held, so scripture may decide. The main objection: a God described only negatively becomes empty.
Why it matters
He gave Jews, Christians and Muslims a shared method for reasoning about faith; Aquinas cites him as 'Rabbi Moses', and Spinoza later attacked his approach.
Legacy and sources
The Guide survives in the original Judeo-Arabic and in Hebrew (1204) and Latin translations; his letters and his great law code, the Mishneh Torah, are also extant.
Still debated
Scholars still argue whether the Guide hides an esoteric message, as Maimonides hints, perhaps that he privately accepted Aristotle's eternal world.
Connections (2)
▸Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed influenced Thomas AquinasWell documented
The connection
Aquinas read the Guide in Latin and called its author 'Rabbi Moses'. He followed Maimonides in holding that reason cannot settle whether the world had a beginning, that much biblical language about God is figurative, and that God reveals some truths reason could reach for those without time to study. He rejected Maimonides' purely negative theology.
When and how
The Guide was translated into Latin around the 1240s, probably in Paris; Aquinas used it from his Sentences commentary in the 1250s onward.
How we know
Aquinas cites 'Rabbi Moses' by name repeatedly, including in the Summa's discussions of divine names and creation.
Debates and open questions
Scholars debate how much of Aquinas's method for reconciling faith and reason came from Maimonides rather than from Avicenna or Christian sources.
▸Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed was criticized by Baruch SpinozaWell documented
The connection
Maimonides held that when Scripture conflicts with reason, it should be read allegorically to fit philosophy. Spinoza, schooled in Amsterdam's Jewish community, rejected this: the Bible should be read historically, for what its authors meant, not stretched to fit Aristotle. That move helped found modern biblical criticism.
When and how
The Guide for the Perplexed, written in Arabic in Cairo around 1190; Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise, published anonymously in Amsterdam in 1670.
How we know
Spinoza names and criticizes Maimonides in Chapter 7 of the Theological-Political Treatise; scholars also trace Maimonides' ideas in his views of God and intellect.
Debates and open questions
How much Spinoza owed Maimonides despite rejecting his method, for instance on the intellectual love of God, is actively debated.