Journal of the History of Philosophy

Journal of the History of Philosophy 39.2 (2001) 193-214

Some Thoughts on What Spinoza Learned from Maimonides about the Prophetic Imagination¹ Part 1. Maimonides on Prophecy and the Imagination

Heidi M. Ravven

The Sixth Fundamental Principle is [the existence] of Prophecy. . . . Among men are found certain individuals so gifted and perfected that they can receive pure intellectual form. Their human intellect clings to the Active Intellect, while a noble overflow pours from it upon them. These men are the prophets; this is what prophecy is. ²

To anyone even somewhat familiar with Maimonides' extended account of prophecy in the Guide to the Perplexed, ³ the omission from the definition of [End Page 193] prophecy in the sixth of the Thirteen Principles as they appear in the Introduction to Perek Helek of the Commentary on the Mishnah, of any reference to the contribution of the imagination seems, at first blush, astonishing. ⁴ Maimonides' definition in the first chapter (II, 32) of his extended treatment of prophecy in the Guide defines prophecy quite differently from the definition of Perek Helek:

When, in the case of a superior individual who is perfect with respect to his rational and moral qualities, his imaginative faculty is in its most perfect state and when he has been [End Page 194] prepared in the way you will hear, he will necessarily become a prophet, inasmuch as this is a perfection that belongs to us by nature. ⁵ (my emphasis)

Now this is the philosophic account of prophecy, Maimonides informs the reader, and he goes on to inform us that the Jewish position, "the opinion of our Law and the foundation of our doctrine," is in agreement with the philosophical position in every respect except insofar as the divine will can prevent someone who is prepared in this way from prophesying. This is Maimonides' openly stated position in the Guide?and the scope of this paper will not extend to investigating whether that position is merely exoteric and thus veils an opinion identical with that of the philosophers or some other position. ⁶ What I would like to call attention to here is something about which the philosophic and the sophisticated Judaic positions are, according to Maimonides, in agreement, namely, that 'the imagination' makes an essential contribution to (non-Mosaic) prophecy.

In II, 36, Maimonides goes on to define prophecy more precisely and to explain how the imagination enters in:

Know that the true reality and quiddity of prophecy consist in its being an emanation emanating from God . . . through the intermediation of the Active Intellect, toward the [End Page 195] rational faculty in the first place and thereafter toward the imaginative faculty. This is the highest degree of man and the ultimate term of perfection that can exist for his species. ⁷

Maimonides continues by informing us that it is precisely the contribution of the perfected imagination that distinguishes prophecy from philosophy.

[Prophecy] is not something that may be attained solely through perfection in the speculative sciences and through improvement of moral habits, even if all of them have become as fine and good as can be. There still is needed in addition the highest possible degree of perfection of the imaginative faculty in respect of its original natural disposition. ⁸

The imagination, Maimonides then reminds us, is a bodily faculty (and hence unlike the material or human intellect, not a direct emanation from the divine realm) and its perfection depends not only on the appropriate regimen but on an original superlative physical endowment. Moreover, Maimonides tells us that the functions of the imagination are three: 1. sensory memory; 2. combining and recombining the data of memory; 3. and "imitation," i.e., a "mimetic" ⁹ and symbolic function. ¹⁰ The latter function encompasses a number of different characteristics of prophecy and of prophets ¹¹ : prophecy's literary genre as [End Page 196] parable, its conveying of meaning symbolically and figuratively rather than literally, its occurrence within states of consciousness (namely...