Maimonides and Philosophy

One may wonder why after the Talmud remarks harshly about Greek philosophy, the Maimonides felt comfortable making a career out of it and also allowed it to influence his world perspective. I certainly wondered about this for years. 

I recently read in a history book that though Islam had inherited the wisdoms of the ancient world, Islamic scholars gave these teachings their own cultural flavor. These wisdoms now resonated with an Islamic cadence, which is purely monotheistic. 

Long before the Maimonides came along, Islamic intellectuals like Al Farabi had already worked out issues of faith versus reason and similar problems; thereby,  aligning Aristotle with religious thought. Therefore,  the "Greek Philosophy" which the Maimonides was exposed to had already been processed and was more faith friendly then it had been in ancient times. Also, when the Abbasid dynasty had the Greek classics translated into Arabic, they directed their efforts only to the topics of science, medicine, mathematics and philosophy. They did not translate literature, poetry and drama. Accordingly, these wisdoms entered Islamic intellectual society in utter absence of much of their original cultural trappings.  

This reminds me of an interesting phenomenon. Shrimp is not kosher for Jews. Yet, salmon whose primary diet (in the wild) is shrimp is kosher. A Jew is forbidden by the Torah from obtaining the energy of a shrimp directly from a shrimp. However, when further processed in the body of a salmon it's alright for a Jew to eat. Similarly, once Islamic intellectual culture had ingested "Greek Philosophy", it really transformed into an Islamic cultural philosophy. 

One may wonder whether what I mentioned above would apply to studying Greek Philosophy in the contemporary setting of a secular university. I would say, "No". In this case the Philosophy is not being processed with a sensitivity to issues of faith in general and monotheism in particular. Possibly it's presented with an even more secular flavor than it had in the Greek original. 

However, it does have another thing going for it. Unlike medieval times, very few people, if any, believe in it. Without underlying belief, it has little or no real influence. Even people serious about it, are usually just studying it as an intellectual exercise and/or to gain historic perspective.

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