Maimonides on the Origin of the World

Looks closely at the debates surrounding Maimonides' discussion of creation.

Kenneth Seeskin (Author)

9780521697521, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 6 November 2006

224 pages
22.8 x 16.1 x 1.2 cm, 0.3 kg

'… reads well. … a good introduction to the issues.' Ars Disputandi

Although Maimonides' discussion of creation is one of his greatest contributions - he himself claims that belief in creation is second in importance only to belief in God - there is still considerable debate on what that contribution was. Kenneth Seeskin takes a close look at the problems Maimonides faced and the sources from which he drew. He argues that Maimonides meant exactly what he said: the world was created by a free act of God so that the existence of everything other than God is contingent. In religious terms, existence is a gift. In order to reach this conclusion, Seeskin examines Maimonides' view of God, miracles, the limits of human knowledge, and the claims of astronomy to be a science. Clearly written and closely argued, Maimonides on the Origin of the World takes up questions of perennial interest.

1. God and the problem of origin
2. Creation in the Timaeus
3. Aristotle and the arguments for eternity
4. Plotinus and the metaphysical causation
5. Particularity
6. Nature, miracles and the end of the world
7. Aftermath and conclusion.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Philosophy of religion [HRAB]