Latin Scholastic Influences on Late Medieval Hebrew Physics

Abstract

Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures provides the first comprehensive overview by worldrenowned experts of what we know today of medieval Jews' engagement with the sciences. Many medieval Jews, whether living in Islamic or Christian civilizations, joined Maimonides in accepting the rationalist philosophical-scientific tradition and appropriated extensive bodies of scientific knowledge in various disciplines: astronomy, astrology, mathematics, logic, physics, meteorology, biology, psychology, the science of language, and medicine. The appropriated texts -in the original or in Hebrew translation -were the starting points for Jews' own contributions to medieval science and also informed other literary genres: religious-philosophical works, biblical commentaries, and even belles lettres and halakhic (legal) discussions. This volume's essays will provide readers with background knowledge of medieval scientific thought necessary to properly understand this wide array of canonical Jewish literature. Its breadth reflects the diversity of Jewish cultures in the Middle Ages and the need to consider the fortunes of science in each one within its specific context.