The dialectic of the modes of knowledge in Hasdai Crescas

Abstract

The philosophical importance of Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340-1411) lies in his development of an original and deep thought in which traditional Jewish conception, Aristotelian and neoplatonic sources converges, but also the new science developed in the fourteenth century. Throughout the pages of Or Hashem Crescas tries to demonstrate the contradiction between Maimonidean aristotelism and Jewish tradition. For him, those who profess Jewish religion can and must find in it the rational foundation of his faith. From an intellectual position that favors fiducial knowledge over rational speculation, Crescas nonetheless takes rationality to its limits in an exercise in exhaustive philosophical criticism to understand and contrast all theories that are examined Or Hashem. The objective of this article is the specific study of faith-reason debate in Crescas's work, in particular in his analysis of divine attributes. We want to show the singularity, contradictions, heuristic character and limits of a form of anti-philosophical philosophy unique in the history of medieval Jewish thought.