CHAPTER 6. The Human Soul and Personality: Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Al-Farabi and Maimonides

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Dedication v
3. Table of Contents vi
4. INTRODUCTION vii
5. CHAPTER 1. What is Jewish Philosophy? 1
6. CHAPTER 2. What is Man 1: A Rationalist Approach 15
7. CHAPTER 3. The Place of Moral Judgment and the Garden of Eden Story 21
8. CHAPTER 4. What is Man 2: A Kabbalistic Approach and an Alternate Explanation of the Garden of Eden Story 31
9. CHAPTER 5. Free Will vs. Determinism, Divine Pre-Knowledge vs. Human Free Will, Divine Knowledge of the Present 38
10. CHAPTER 6. The Human Soul and Personality: Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Al-Farabi and Maimonides 56
11. CHAPTER 7. The Human Soul: A Kabbalistic View 65
12. CHAPTER 8. A Theory of Morality—Maimonides’ take on Aristotle’s Golden Mean 67
13. CHAPTER 9. Understanding the Afterlife and Messianism: A Rationalist Approach 79
14. CHAPTER 10. Understanding the Afterlife and Messianism: A Kabbalistic Approach 105
15. CHAPTER 11. Belief in God: Is it a Mitzvah? An Unusual Problem Among the Legalists 117
16. CHAPTER 12. Belief in God: The Classical Approach in the Middle Ages, Halevi’s Critique, and the Problems with the Logical Proofs 129
17. CHAPTER 13. Belief in God: A Modern Approach 137
18. CHAPTER 14. Changes in the Perception of Monotheism Over the Ages 149
19. CHAPTER 15. Why Mysticism is So Popular Today 158
20. CHAPTER 16. Attitudes Towards Modern Cosmogony and Evolution Among Rabbinic Thinkers in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: The Resurgence of the Doctrine of the Sabbatical Years 168
21. CHAPTER 17. The Resurgence of Religion in the Late Twentieth Century and Judaism’s Unique Contribution to a Moderate and Meaningful Life 203
22. APPENDIX I. Development of the Oral Torah 206
23. APPENDIX II. The World of Maimonides: An Unorthodox Modern History of an Orthodox and Modern Thinker 208
24. APPENDIX III. Brief Biographies of Well-Known Jewish Thinkers 213
25. NOTES 217
26. BIBLIOGRAPHY 239
27. INDEX 250