Maimonides's Guide on Obstacles to Knowledge, Being, and Action

"Maimonides's GUIDE OF THE PERPLEXED (completed ca. 1191 CE) is among the most important and elusive works in the history of Judaism and philosophy. Among the greatest difficulties has been determining what genre of writing it belongs to. Leo Strauss challenged the contemporary consensus that it is a work of "Jewish philosophy." Rather, the GUIDE is first and foremost a defense of the Law, or what his predecessor, whom he praised highly, Alfarabi identified as the art of kalam or dialectical theology. However, it is an unusual sort of kalam, which Strauss dubbed "intelligent kalam." Since Shlomo Pines's 1979 article on the limits of knowledge in Maimonides (as well as Alfarabi and Ibn Bajja), much of Maimonides scholarship has centered on these limits. In his book on the GUIDE in 2013, Josef Stern identified two extremes on the limits of knowledge--the dogmatic and the skeptical. He expanded on Pines's skeptical reading. Here, Parens provides a middle ground between these two extremes and argues that the limits are intentionally vague, thereby making possible not only a defense of the Law but also a defense of philosophy. The second part concerns the three great themes of the GUIDE: creation, prophecy, and providence. Maimonides's preferred position on prophecy is that God's will can prevent it. It is unlikely to be coincidental that obstacles, impediments, and prevention are also crucial in his accounts of creation and providence. Parens argues that obstacles or privation are a key to these themes and the GUIDE as a whole"-- Provided by publisher.