History of Philosophy

Philosophy of the Near East

Jewish Philosophy

Another domain of philosophical expansion was the Jewish cultural milieu. The Jews created a vast and incredibly rich spiritual tradition centered around the value of the book. Jewish sacred writings, the extensive commentarial philosophy, "wisdom literature," and so forth elevate Jewish culture to the status of one of humanity's greatest cultural legacies. One segment of this Jewish spiritual and intellectual culture is philosophy. What is commonly referred to as Jewish philosophy is the result of the encounter between Jewish religious culture and European philosophical tradition. Such encounters were multiple. The first rich synthesis occurred in Antiquity when some members of the Jewish diaspora in Egypt were captivated by Greek philosophy. This meeting led to the emergence of the Alexandrian school of Middle Platonism, with notable Jewish figures such as Philo of Alexandria among its members. Philo and his followers aimed to present the Bible through the language of Greek philosophy, particularly Platonism. The members of this philosophical school argued that Divine Revelation, as articulated in the Torah, is the highest philosophy, and Greek wisdom is merely its expression; Greek philosophers inherited wisdom from Jewish prophets, making the Torah primary over philosophy; the difference between Jewish and Greek thought lay only in the use of mythical images by Jews and abstract concepts by Greeks.

A distinguishing feature of the Jewish diaspora in Egypt was its Hellenization. While the Jewish diaspora in Babylon and other areas of Jewish settlement preserved its identity and distanced itself from surrounding cultures, in Egypt the Jews became Hellenized. A vivid indicator of this Hellenization was that by the first century BCE, they no longer understood Hebrew and were compelled to translate the Bible into Greek. This translation is known as the Septuagint. Added to this was the globalization caused by Alexander the Great’s conquests. Having conquered the entire Near East, Alexander aimed to create a unified global cultural space. This project was partially realized: the cultures of the Near Eastern peoples blended. Greek culture became the foundation for this new synthesis; simplified Greek became the common language. Each ethnic group reacted differently to these changes. Among the Jews, reactions varied. Even in Israel, many Jews were enamored with Greek culture and spoke Greek. In the Jewish diaspora in Egypt, this trend was even more pronounced. Among the elements of Greek culture admired by the intelligentsia was Greek learning, i.e., philosophy. For those who embraced the new cultural standards, Greek philosophy became the benchmark of wisdom. Among the Egyptian Jews, a group of intellectuals emerged who assimilated into Hellenistic culture but did not renounce their own heritage. They sought to demonstrate that Jewish cultural achievements were not inferior to Greek ones. They argued that the Jewish Bible and Greek philosophy originated from the same source, and even more: Greek philosophers and Egyptian sages received the truth from Jewish prophets, thus Jewish culture is the source of Greek learning. This idea was first articulated by Aristobulus in the 2nd century BCE. The main difference between Jewish and Greek intellectual traditions was that Greek philosophers used abstract philosophical concepts, while Jewish prophets employed anthropomorphic categories. The Hellenized Jewish philosophers interpreted these anthropomorphic images as a specific mode of presenting the same contents found in Greek philosophical concepts.

The product of the meeting between Jewish spiritual tradition and Greek philosophy is also the Kabbalah. Kabbalah is a mystical-philosophical doctrine recorded in several books. The Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation), traditionally ascribed to Abraham, was most likely written before 120 CE by Rabbi Akiva. The Sefer Zohar (Book of Splendor) was written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a student of Rabbi Akiva, in the 2nd century; however, it gained popularity only in the 13th century thanks to the Sephardic Rabbi Moses de Leon. The oldest Kabbalistic book is the Sefer Bahir (Book of Brightness). According to Kabbalistic tradition, it was written in the 1st century by Rabbi Nehunia ben HaKana. The Bahir spread in 1176 through the Provençal Kabbalistic school.

Kabbalists teach that the primordial basis of all existence is Ayn Sof (Infinity). This term denotes God, who is absolutely indescribable and unbounded. Since God cannot be defined by any concept, He is nothingness. At the same time, God is everything, for within Him, as the cause of everything, everything resides, and all things emanate from Him. Subsequently, God desired to manifest outwardly. To allow space for self-expression, He retracted into Himself, contracting and thus creating space. Immediately, this newly freed space was filled with divine light, for space cannot remain empty. All that exists is nothing but divine light. It diminishes as it moves away from Ayn Sof. At its lowest levels, where the light nearly fades, it materializes, forming the world of things. The creation of the world ex nihilo (from nothing) is understood by Kabbalists as creation from Ayn Sof: God, who is nothingness as He is not defined by any affirmative concept, creates the world from Himself. Thus, the doctrine of emanation developed in Kabbalah. The first stage of emanation is the Primordial Man (Adam Kadmon). The idea of the Primordial Man as the first stage of emanation evolved from the Greek concept of man as a microcosm, where the seeds of the entire world are concentrated. Through Adam Kadmon, ten Sefirot emanate from Ayn Sof, which are both creative attributes of God and supra-material realms of existence.

In Kabbalistic anthropology, emphasis is placed on the human soul, which is divided into three parts corresponding to three worlds: Nefesh corresponds to the lowest world of Assiyah and represents the sensory principle and source of passions in a person; Neshamah corresponds to the highest world of Beriah and constitutes the mystical-intellectual essence of a person; Ruach corresponds to the middle world of Yetzirah. Ruach is the moral agent within a person: if it ascends to Neshamah, the person becomes good; if it descends to Nefesh, the person becomes evil.

Another encounter between Jewish culture and European philosophy occurred in the Middle Ages. The beginning of medieval Jewish philosophy of the Neoplatonic trend was established by Solomon ben Judah ibn Gabirol, or in Latin, Avicebron (c. 1021-1058). According to him, the source of all existence is God, with nothing else existing apart from Him. The first expression of God is His will, which is simultaneously the basis of God's emanation from which all existence flows. The stages of emanation materialize as they move away from God. God cannot be known, but one can know the world, which is His expression. Knowledge is the primary task of humanity. Through the knowledge of God’s expressions, a person ascends to Him. Accordingly, knowledge is the essential task of humanity and the definitive marker of its essence.

Another figure in Sephardic philosophy was Judah ben Samuel Halevi (c. 1075-1141), who, through the theory of mysticism, sought to demonstrate the superiority of Judaism over Christianity. Halevi argued that the true way to know God is through personal experience of His Revelation. If such a revelation is received individually, it may be mistaken. Only the Jews experienced Revelation at Sinai as a whole people, so their faith is true.

Aristotelianism in Jewish philosophy was adapted by Moses Maimonides (1135-1204). Maimonides devoted much attention to the analysis of God’s attributes. He believed that no true affirmative judgment could be made about God. Since God is absolutely transcendent, any affirmative statement cannot encompass His essence. All that people know about God pertains not to God Himself but to His expressions in creation. Maimonides maintained the belief that the world has a beginning and was created by God ex nihilo. In this context, he opposed Arabic commentators on Aristotle, who believed that creatio ex nihilo could be rationally proven. Maimonides thought that the creation of the world from nothing is not subject to rational demonstration. Creationism belongs to the realm of faith, not reason.

In modern times, Jewish philosophers integrated into the broader context of Western philosophy and became active participants in global philosophical discourse, making a significant contribution to the development of world philosophy.