[Avodah] Was the Rambam really a rationalist?

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 11:25:00AM -0400, David Riceman via Avodah wrote:
: Oxford Minidictionary (ROM???):
: Mystic: A person who seeks spiritual truths or experiences
: Rationalism: Practice of treating reason as the basis of knowledge and belief

Notice in these definitions they are values, not categories of
philosophical schools of thought. A mystic is someone who finds meaning
in the experiential. Often emphasizing how deeply the universe and
G-d are beyond what we can articulate. A rationalist finds meaning in
understanding.

: On the face of it those categories are not mutually exclusive - - the
: Rambam and his son, R Avraham, easily fit into both...

As per the above note, R' Avraham yes. The Rambam less so, as he considers
the religious experience a means of clarifying knowledge. (In particular,
see the last paragraphs of the Moreh.)

..
: Not only were these categories generated by examples from outside of
: Judaism, but you need to distort either them or Judaism to try to apply
: them to Jewish thinkers. I was pushing you to delineate more appropriate
: categories.

Not me personally. My pony in this race is that (1) the labels
[as noramlly understood not Oxford] are too broad to be applied
meaningfully. (I cited the example of the Ramchal.) And (2) their meaning
evolved over time. Once the scientific method is invented, much of what
the Rambam would have called rational and Natural Philosophy is not
thought of as aethesticism -- what theory has the appeal of elegance --
and appeal to authority (generally an Ancient Greek).

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             How wonderful it is that
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