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.