Gersonides biography of mahatma

Manufacturer information: Koninklijke Brill B. Reference Works. Primary source collections. How to publish with Brill. Open Access Content. Contact us. Sales contacts. Publishing contacts. Social Media Overview. Terms and Conditions. Privacy Statement. Login to my Brill account Create Brill Account. Editor: Gad Freudenthal. Levi ben Gershom Gersonides, is one of the greatest and most original figures of Medieval Jewish thought.

He wrote numerous works in philosophy, science and biblical exegesis. Some of his scientific works, most notably his highly innovative Astronomywere translated from Hebrew into Latin and could thus reach non-Jewish scholars. The twelve studies collected in this bilingual volume English and French in equal parts offer for the first time a comprehensive overview and assessment of Gersonides' work in astronomy, mathematics, logic, natural science, and psychology.

Gersonides' contributions are analyzed within the context of contemporary philosophy and science in Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin. New light is also shed on the reception of Gersonides' work within European science. The volume includes a very extensive bibliography of writings by and about Gersonides. Davidson, Tzvi Y. Langermann, Charles H.

Manekin, Amos Funkenstein, Gad Freudenthal. Copyright Year: E-Book PDF. Third, the longer a star stays in one place in the zodiac, the greater its effect because of the strength of its luminosity. Fourth, astral influence is dependent upon its inclination to the north or to the south; its effect will be strongest when it is in the middle, as evidenced by the sun, whose heat is strongest when it is at the Tropic of Cancer as opposed to gersonides biography of mahatma at the Tropic of Capricorn.

Fifth, the greater the radiation or luminosity of a star, the stronger its influence. And finally, the closer to earth a star is, the stronger will be its influence WarsV. These principles function as the underpinnings of his general astronomy as well. In light of the original problems posed by astrology above, let me propose that the most important piece of Levi's astrology is what Langermann calls the variety of the heavens ribbui hayahasim.

Gersonides must be able to account for individual variety in the sublunar realm. They are ordered in a rational system that governs the sublunar domain. If there were no one first intellect, Gersonides argues, the rational order we see in the heavens would be the result of chance, which is unacceptable. The agent intellect thus functions as the link between these celestial bodies and human affairs.

The agent intellect serves as the repository of information communicated by the heavenly bodies. However, inasmuch as the heavenly bodies do not jointly cooperate with one another lo yishtatfu in this process, it is possible for the communication to be misconstrued. Of course, as we all know, astrologers often err in their predictions. Astrological errors can be due to several factors.

In general, Gersonides claims, we know very little of the order of the heavenly bodies. This is nicely illustrated in astrology, where frequently false predictions are made. In some cases, the information is not transmitted clearly. Why is it that certain communications are received more clearly than others? A constitutionally perfect imaginative faculty receives information from both dominant and weak heavenly bodies.

But to constitutionally imperfect imaginative faculties, the information received is only from the dominant heavenly bodies. Hence the overall quality of the information received will differ in the two cases. More specifically, because of the difficulty of obtaining the necessary positions of these bodies by observation, astrologers are often unable to verify their data.

Furthermore, since the zodiacal position of a heavenly body at any given time is only repeated once in many thousands of years, astrologers have no access to the repeatability of those events that would be required to verify their knowledge.

Gersonides biography of mahatma: biography. A-Z. Special topics, A-Z.

Furthermore, humans simply do not have sufficient knowledge about the heavenly bodies. Although he admits that on occasion human choice is able to contravene the celestial bodies, nevertheless this intervention is rare, and true contingency is a rare state of affairs indeed in Gersonides' ontology. Gersonides presents an argument to show that human choice guided by reason can subvert the celestial bodies despite their general ordering of our lives.

The heavenly bodies can order human affairs either by virtue of their difference of position in the heavens, or from the difference of the bodies among themselves. Outdoing even Plato's hierarchical structuring in Republic IV, Gersonides argues that the ultimate perfection and ordering of society is due to astrological influence.

The commensurability of the motion of heavenly bodies raises an additional concern, having to do with the uniqueness of individual beings and the doctrine of eternal return. Gersonides' immediate 13 th century predecessors Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera and Judah ben Solomon ha-Cohen discussed this issue against the backdrop of Aristotle's Gen. In Gen.

AnimaliaAristotle had established a connection between the life spans and gestations periods of animals and the revolutions of the sun and moon Gen. Thus the revolutions of the sun measure not only time but also produce the alternating periods of growth and decay. Eschatological predictions are thus tied to the cyclicity of the heavenly bodies.

Gersonides did not [to our knowledge] indulge in eschatological and millennial predictions. In fact, Gersonides wrote only one astrological text that has survived, a prognostication based on the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter to take place in March Gersonides himself died ina year before the event in question. As Goldstein has demonstrated, this conjunction was predicted already by Ibn Ezra, and repeated by Abraham Bar Hiyya in his Megillat ha-Megalleh where the conjunction was associated with a date of messianic significance that would supposedly take effect in Goldstein,p.

The conjunction was codified by Levi ben Abraham ben Hayyim in his encyclopedia Livyat Henindicating an awareness in the Jewish community of the messianic significance of this conjunction. According to North, Ibn Ezra was the earliest scholar to record one of the seven methods for the setting up of the astrological houses; Gersonides then computed the astrological houses for the prognostication of according to Ibn Ezra's method.

See North,p. Goldstein suggests that as the gersonides biography of mahatma approached, the Papal court might have become interested as well in the conjunction. We do know that Gersonides' text was translated into Latin with the aid of his brother shortly after Gersonides' death in The Black Death, which arrived in Europe inwas thus provided with numerous astrological credentials.

It is not hard to see how the conjunction of came to be associated with the Black Death. Gersonides' philosophical ideas went against the grain of traditional Jewish thought; he also challenged scholastic thought. Gersonides reflects the following characteristics: first, his writings demonstrate a fundamental interplay and harmony between astrological and theological beliefs.

It is clear that the appeal of astrology lay in the fact that it offered useful information, while it looked and operated like a science. Even the critics of astrology had to agree that the heavens exerted a real influence upon terrestrial events. The complexity of the rules of astrology and internal disagreement among its followers served to increase the respect accorded to the science.

Failures did not cause the astrologer to lose faith, just as failures among modern physicists do not lead to loss of faith in science. Gersonides believed that life on earth had a meaning, and that terrestrial events had an order. Astrology was a means of ascertaining that meaning. Gersonides' views on prophecy, providence, free-will and evil reflected ingredients of this philosophical determinism.

Whereas his commentaries occupied a central place in Jewish theology, his philosophical work was rejected. Jewish philosophers such as Hasdai Crescas and Isaac Abrabanel felt obliged to subject his works to lengthy criticism. Only in recent years has Gersonides received his rightful place in the history of philosophy. As scholars have rediscovered his thought and have made his corpus available to a modern audience, Gersonides is once again appreciated as an insightful, ruthlessly consistent philosopher.

Introduction 2. Biography 3. Major Works 4. Major Themes in Milhamot Ha-shem 5. Gersonides' Astrological Determinism 6. Biography Gersonides left few letters and does not talk about himself in his writings; nor is his life discussed at great length by his contemporaries. Major Themes in Milhamot Ha-shem In the introduction to MilhamotGersonides specifies six questions which he hopes to examine: Is the rational soul immortal?

Conclusion Gersonides' philosophical ideas went against the grain of traditional Jewish thought; he also challenged scholastic thought. New York: Bloch, Providence and the Philosophy of Gersonidestranslated by David Bleich. He has been constantly quoted even if only to be criticizedand, through the gersonides biography of mahatma of Hasdai Crescas and others, Gersonides' ideas have influenced such thinkers as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Benedict de Spinoza.

This article will survey his major contributions to medieval philosophy. Gersonides is the philosopher who attempted to show that philosophy and Torah, that reason and revelation are co-extensive; he is a philosophical optimist who believes that reason was fully competent to attain all the important and essential truths. This trust is reflected in Gersonides' introductory remarks to Wars.

Thus reason is upheld as a criterion for achieving truth. Gersonides left few letters and does not talk about himself in his writings; nor is his life discussed at great length by his contemporaries. Hence, what is known of his biography is sketchy at best.

Gersonides biography of mahatma: Philosophers (and others important

Levi ben Gerson was born in in Provence and may have lived for a time in Bagnol sur-Ceze. It is probable that his father was Gershom ben Salomon de Beziers, a notable mentioned in medieval histories. With the decline of Spanish Judaism in the thirteenth century, Provence quickly became the cultural center for Jewish intellectual activity. The popes in Avignon had a lenient policy toward the Jews, whose creative life flourished, particularly in philosophy and theology.

By the end of the thirteenth century these commentaries had been translated from Arabic into Hebrew, and Averroes' thought, as well as that of Aristotle, was being integrated into the mainstream of Jewish philosophy. Gersonides may have married a distant cousin; it is not known whether he had any offspring. He may have had a reading knowledge of Latin; he appears to manifest an awareness of contemporary Scholastic discussions.

Gersonides biography of mahatma: In Judaism, Gersonides, for

He might, however, have learned of such discussions in oral conversations with his Christian contemporaries. Apart from several trips to Avignon, Gersonides most likely resided his entire life in Orange. There is some evidence that he may have followed the traditional occupation of his family, moneylending. He died on 20 April In addition to Averroes and Aristotle, Gersonides was influenced by Moses Maimonides, his greatest Jewish philosophical predecessor.

Gersonides' works can be seen as an attempt to integrate the teachings of Aristotle, as mediated through Averroes and Maimonides, with those of Judaism. What distinguished Gersonides from his predecessors was his reliance upon and consummate knowledge of mathematics, coupled with his belief in the accuracy of observations achieved by the use of good instruments.

Because of this rootedness in empirical observation bolstered by mathematics, Gersonides believed that he had the tools to succeed where others had failed. Only when he has resolved the problems in astronomy does Gersonides apply their findings to theological cosmology. As we shall see, Gersonides' theology and astronomy are deeply involved with each other.

This realist stance is stated in the context of examining al-Bitruji's astronomical proposals. That Gersonides clearly considered his own observations to be the ultimate test of his system is explicit from his attitude towards Ptolemy. The importance of empirical observation cannot be underestimated, he claims, and he values his own observations over those of others.

Often his observations do not agree with those of Ptolemy, and in those cases he tells us explicitly that he prefers his own. Gersonides lists the many inaccuracies he has found trying to follow Ptolemy's calculations. He does warn his colleagues, however, to dissent from Ptolemy only after great diligence and scrutiny. Gersonides' scientific works comprise mathematics and astronomy.

His Sefer Ma'aseh Hoshev The Work of a Counteris concerned with arithmetical operations and uses of a symbolic notation for numerical variables. Gersonides' major scientific contributions were in astronomy; his works were known by his contemporaries and influenced later astronomers. His astronomical writings are contained primarily in book 5, part 1 of Milhamot Ha-Shem.

In chapters Gersonides reviews and criticizes astronomical theories of the day, compiles astronomical tables, and describes one of his astronomical inventions. One of the craters of the moon, Rabbi Leviis named after him. Gersonides was well known as a Halakhist, one who deals with the intricacies of Jewish law. From this respect, his greatest contribution to Judaica was in the area of biblical commentary.

His commentary on the Book of Job, completed inproved to be one of his most popular works and was one of the earliest Hebrew books to be published in Ferrara, The commentary, which complements book 4 of Milhamot Ha-Shemis concerned with the problem of divine providence. Each of the characters in the Book of Job represents a different theory of divine providence; Gersonides' own position is a restatement of Elihu's theory that providence is not directed to particulars but rather to groups of individuals, or universals.

Gersonides also wrote a logical treatise, Sefer Ha-heqesh Ha-yashar On Valid Syllogisms, in which he examines problems associated with Aristotle's modal logic as developed in the Prior Analytics. This treatise was translated into Latin at an early date, although Gersonides' name was not attached to it. Gersonides' major philosophical work, Milhamot Ha-Shemwas completed in ; it had been twelve years in the making.

In Gersonides began an essay on the problem of creation. This problem, which has vexed Jewish philosophers since Philo Judaeus, had recently received elaborate treatment by Maimonides. Gersonides was dissatisfied with Maimonides' discussion and proposed to reopen the issue. This project was soon laid aside, however, for he felt that it could not be adequately discussed without proper grounding in the issues of time, motion, and the infinite.

By his manuscript had developed to include gersonides biography of mahatma not only of creation but also of immortality, divination, and prophecy. By it included a chapter on providence as well. Books 5 and 6 were completed, by Gersonides' own dating, by In contradistinction to Maimonides, who introduced allegory, metaphor, and imprecise language into his work to convey the ambiguity of the subject matter, Gersonides saw it as his function to elucidate the issues as clearly as possible.

Gersonides is the first Jewish philosopher to use this analytic, scholastic method. In the introduction to MilhamotGersonides specifies six questions which he hopes to examine: Is the rational soul immortal? What is the nature of prophecy? Does God know particulars? Does divine providence extend to individuals? What is the nature of astronomical bodies?

Only the first work is extant. Gersonides was the first to make a number of major mathematical and scientific advances, though since he wrote only in Hebrew and few of his writings were translated to other languages, his influence on non-Jewish thought was limited. Gersonides wrote Maaseh Hoshev in dealing with arithmetical operations including extraction of square and cube rootsvarious algebraic identities, certain sums including sums of consecutive integers, squares, and cubes, binomial coefficients, and simple combinatorial identities.

The work is notable for its early use of proof by mathematical inductionand pioneering work in combinatorics. InGersonides wrote On Sines, Chords and Arcswhich examined trigonometryin particular proving the sine law for plane triangles and giving five-figure sine tables. The problem was to characterize all pairs of harmonic numbers differing by 1.

Gersonides proved that there are only four such pairs: 1,22,33,4 and 8,9. He is also credited to have invented the Jacob's staff[ 13 ] an instrument to measure the angular distance between celestial objects. It is described as consisting. Gersonides observed a solar eclipse on March 3, After he had observed this event he proposed a new theory of the sun which he proceeded to test by further observations.

Another eclipse observed by Gersonides was the eclipse of the Moon on 3 October He described a geometrical model for the motion of the Moon and made other astronomical observations of the Moon, Sun and planets using a camera obscura. Some of his beliefs were well wide of the truth, such as his belief that the Milky Way was on the sphere of the fixed stars and shines by the reflected light of the Sun.

Gersonides was also the earliest known mathematician to have used the technique of mathematical induction in a systematic and self-conscious fashion and anticipated Galileo's error theory. The lunar crater Rabbi Levi is named after him. Gersonides believed that astrology was real, and developed a naturalistic, non-supernatural explanation of how it works.

Julius Guttman explained that for Gersonides, astrology was:. The general connection imparted to the prophet by the active intellect is the general order of the astrological constellation. The constellation "gersonides biography of mahatma" which a man is born determines his nature and fate, and constellations as well determine the life span of nations.

Thus, when a prophet deals with the destiny of a particular person or human group, he receives from the active intellect a knowledge of the order of the constellations, and with sufficient precision to enable him to predict its fate in full detail. The free will of man could shatter the course of action ordained for him by the stars; prophecy could therefore predict the future on the basis of astrological determination only insofar as the free will of man does not break through the determined course of things.

Gersonides appears to be the only astronomer before modern times to have surmised that the fixed stars are much further away than the planets. Whereas all other astronomers put the fixed stars on a rotating sphere just beyond the outer planets, Gersonides estimated the distance to the fixed stars to be no less than ,, earth radii, [ 16 ] or aboutlightyears in modern units.

Using data he collected from his own observations, Gersonides refuted Ptolemy's model in what the notable physicist Yuval Ne'eman has considered as "one of the most important insights in the history of science, generally missed in telling the story of the transition from epicyclic corrections to the geocentric model to Copernicus' heliocentric model ".

Ne'eman argued that after Gersonides reviewed Ptolemy's model with its epicycles he realized that it could be checked, by measuring the changes in the apparent brightnesses of Mars and looking for cyclical changes along the conjectured epicycles. Gersonides developed tools for these measurements, essentially pinholes and the camera obscura.

The results of his observations did not fit Ptolemy's model at all.