Abstract

This study provides an inter-disciplinary methodology to examine the literary, philosophical, religious, and cultural context for understanding the genre of the philosophical novel. In particular, it is a case study of Avicenna's Arabic Hayy ibn Yaqzan and Abraham Ibn Ezra's Hebrew Hay ben Meqitz. I contend that these novels are not a form of philosophy for the masses, but are important treatises that presuppose a certain ontology and aesthetics. From the perspective of literary criticism, I demonstrate that Ibn Ezra's novel provides an important example of the cultural competition that existed between Jews and Muslims in al-Andalus . Moreover, I also argue that Ibn Ezra departs from Avicenna when it comes to the philosophical component of the novel. As a result, Ibn Ezra's novel is an important, though often overlooked, work within his oeuvre. ;I also contend that medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy developed aesthetics as a distinct subfield of philosophy, and that the philosophical novel is the literary expression of this. Often this material is studied by historians of literature; I, however, suggest that the analysis of these texts should be viewed in the light of the history of philosophy. ;The imagination is the faculty that is closely associated with this aesthetics. As a result, I provide a framework for understanding the rather ambiguous position of the imagination. I argue that it is the faculty that is responsible for allowing the finite, embodied individual to access and apprehend that which exists without body. The imagination, thus, has an important hermeneutical function as it allows humans to interact with, and give concrete expression to, the immaterial