Leicht, Reimund
Senior Fellow: March–August 2019
Research Project: The Parisian Bans on Aristotelian Philosophy 1210–77 and the Maimonidean Controversy – Comparative Studies of Two Alleged Turning Points in Medieval Intellectual History
One of the major motivating forces for change in medieval intellectual history was the reception of Aristotelian philosophy. However, theological opposition to the adoption of Aristotle provoked repeated bans at European universities during the thirteenth century. During almost exactly the same period of time, the Jewish communities were shaken by the so-called Maimonidean Controversy. Although undoubtedly carried out in different forms and partly on different topics, this controversy can be considered in many respects as more than an “analogous” phenomenon to the history of scholastic Aristotelianism and anti-Aristotelianism which should be studied from a comparative perspective.
The comparative research project will consist of two interconnected aspects: (1) the collection of the relevant bibliographical data for all the primary sources (manuscripts and editions) relevant to the different phases of the Maimonidean Controversy; and (2) the elaboration of the programmatic outline of the profile of the Maimonidean Controversy within the general intellectual and cultural history of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Special attention will be paid to the question of how sceptical and non-sceptical arguments in the Maimonidean Controversy paved the way for new ways of thinking among Jewish intellectual elites.
Reimund Leicht (PhD 2004, Freie Universität Berlin) is the Ethel Backenroth Senior Lecturer for Jewish Thought and History and the head of the programme for the history and philosophy of science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.