Manekin, Charles
Senior Fellow: April–July 2023
Research Project: Jewish Responses to Sceptical Challenges in the Medieval Hebrew Logical Tradition
Although work in medieval scepticism has generally focused on challenges to the Aristotelian philosophical tradition from without, there are two sceptical challenges to knowledge found in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics that have to do with his conception of knowledge as understanding/explanation. The first challenge argues that because first principles cannot be explained, and since knowledge, according to Aristotle, rests on first principles, we cannot have knowledge (explanation) of anything. The second challenge argues that because knowledge is the explanation of a thing through its cause and the existence of God has no cause through which it is explained, there cannot be knowledge of God’s existence. Medieval philosophers dealt with these challenges in various ways. With regard to the sceptical challenge pertaining to the existence of God, they appealed to a distinction found in the Posterior Analytics between factual and explanatory demonstrations. The fact of God’s existence can be demonstrated, but not explained through a demonstration.
The project involves considering the treatment of these two questions—the antique knowledge and the epistemic value of factual demonstrations—in the writings of Levi Gersonides, Judah Messer Leon, and Abraham Bibago, all of whom wrote commentaries on the Posterior Analytics.
Charles Manekin is a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland.