Dr. A. A. Roback Traces Rise, Growth of Jewish Philosophy

A fascinating paper on Jewish Philosophy was read here by Professor A. A. Roback of Harvard University at the recent International Congress of Philosophy. Pointing out that to some it may be questionable whether there ever was a Jewish philosophy or mode of thought, Dr. Roback said that “among British writers, Buckle, Carlyle, and Goldwin Smith may be cited as belittling Jewish intellectual achievement on the ground that the Jews in antiquity were not a reflective people, as were the Greeks and Romans. Yet beginning with Philo in the first century, the foundations were laid for a distinct Jewish trend in that he was referred to as ‘the Jew.’ To all intents and purposes he was a Greek philosopher, but it cannot be gainsaid that there were many Jewish elements ein his neo-Platonic doctrine. In subsequent centuries, when Plato and Aristotle alone shone as the beacon lights on the rather obscure philosophical firmament of the Middle Ages, Jewish philosophy was given an individual place by historians.

AVICEBRON

“Although it had not become known until recently that Avicebron was no other than the young Hebrew poet Ibn-Gabirol, the long line of Jewish thinkers beginning with Saadia Gaon, in the tenth century, and culminating in Spinoza was deemed worthy of comparison with men like Averroes, Alfarabi and Avicenna on the one hand and pillars like St. Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus on the other.

“Here were thinkers of the scope of Ibn-Gabirol, Bahya Ibn Pakuda, Maimonides, Gersonides and Crescas. It was a religious philosophy for the most part, but the Christian philosophers in France, Germany, Italy and England were no less religious in their conceptions. It is conceded on all sides that there was a Jewish philosophy in the Middle Ages.

JEWISH PHILOSOPHY DISAPPEARED

“With the inauguration of the Modern period, Jewish philosophy seems to have disappeared. But the Jews still remain. When Spinoza’s name became associated with the system which he had crystallized, it was the philosophy of the Jew which was condemned at the time. A couple of centuries later he was honored as a Dutch philosopher.

“I have heard the point made that since the Jews ex-communicated Spinoza they cannot now claim him as one of their own. But the Jewish sources in Spinoza’s teachings are so patent that a compendium of Jewish philosophy could not but properly include his doctrines. Spinoza was by no means the last Jewish philosopher. In the eighteenth century two of the acutest contemporaries of Kant, according to his own testimony, were Solomon Maimon and Moses Mendelssohn. While it is true that both were influenced by German thought, both derived their first principles from Maimonides and other Jewish scholastics.

“Perhaps these two offer no difficulties to one who wishes to see a continued existence of Jewish philosophy. It is rather the recent past and contemporary thought which present real problems, for with the exception of Herman Cohen, founder of the Marburg School, there is not, so far as I know, a single one of the most outstanding Jewish philosophers in Germany, France and England who has drawn on Jewish sources or is conscious of a Jewish current in his philosophy.”

Turning to the question “When Has Jewish Philosophy Become Extinct,” Dr. Roback said, “we must first establish our criterion of what constitutes Jewish philosophy. If the sine qua non is being produced on Jewish territory, there never has been any Jewish philosophy as a systematic discipline. If the condition is the exclusive language of the Jews, the existence of a Jewish philosophy must be denied, for with few exceptions Jewish philosophers wrote in non-Jewish languages.

“There, is however, slowly developing both in Hebrew and Yiddish a philosophical literature not without merit. Krokhmal, Moses Hess, Akhad ha’Am, Martin Buber and many others have concerned themselves with the problem of the Jew’s place in the world. The growth of a Jewish metaphysic in Hebrew or Yiddish is impeded by the small appeal of these languages for the intellectual world.”