Carlos Fraenkel, James McGill Professor, Jewish Studies and Philosophy, McGill University
presents a lecture:
"Universalism, Pluralism, Exclusivism: Maimonides in the Context of Medieval Arabic Philosophy"
Monday, February 8, 12:15 p.m. -- Barker Center 133
In this lecture I propose a solution to the puzzle why Maimonides (d. 1204) both conceives Judaism in a way that allows for other virtuous religions and insists that there can be no virtuous religion but Judaism. The main argument of Arabic philosophers (falāsifa) for the possibility of multiple virtuous religions gives rise to what I call the “indifference objection:” if multiple virtuous religions exist that are equally suitable to attain the good, it doesn’t matter to which of these a person belongs. This helps to understand why most of the falāsifa defend the superiority of their own religion. But whereas Christian and Muslim philosophers such as Yaḥyā ibn Adī (d. 974) and Averroes (d. 1198) allow for other virtuous, but less perfect, religions, Maimonides insists, for apologetic reasons, on the exclusive validity of Judaism. My comparative approach will show why Maimonides could not endorse the more inclusive positions of Yaḥyā and Averroes.
A light lunch will be served; the lecture begins at 12:45pm
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Sponsored by the Departments of Comparative Literature and of Near Eastern
Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University