Logic, Jewish

Abstract

The study of Aristotelian logic was widespread among medieval Jews who studied even a rudimentary amount of profane science. Jews in Islamic lands appear to have learned logic mostly from the Arabic translations of Aristotle and the works of the Muslim Peripatetics. In southern Europe, especially Spain, southern France, and Italy, the earliest logical texts translated from Arabic into Hebrew were by al-Fārābī, followed by Averroes, whose paraphrases (Middle Commentaries) on the Aristotelian Organon were the authoritative texts that spawned commentaries. Beginning in the fourteenth century, Jews became familiar with the works of Scholastic logic, especially the Tractatus of Peter of Spain, and in the fifteenth century, Scholastic writings were translated into Hebrew, and one can speak of Hebrew Scholastic logic. Aside from the elementary primers that covered most of the Organon, the focus of the study was the logica antiqua (Isagoge, Categories, De interpretatione); some authors were also interested in the Posterior Analytics. With the exception of Levi Gersonides (1288–1344), none embarked on an independent analysis of syllogistic, including modal syllogistic. Physicians, as well as rabbis engaged in religious disputations, had practical motives for the study of Scholastic logic, but some Jews simply were attracted to logic for its own sake. Because of its ideological neutrality, logic was studied not only by Aristotelian philosophers but by kabbalists as well.