Virtue and the Good Life in Medieval Jewish Philosophy

Catalog description

Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Jewish philosophers began to explore the cultivation of good character as one of the central purposes of the Torah. Virtue ethics, as elucidated by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, was adopted by Jewish thinkers such as Moses Maimonides, Levi Gersonides, Hasdai Crescas, Joseph Albo and Isaac Arama,a ll of whom began to develop new ways of explaining how the cultivation of moral virtues and the pursuit of happiness are central to the Torah and the Jewish tradition. This course will discuss primary and secondary literature relating to this material to engage in a sustained discussion of the nature of ethical behavior and how it relates to the teachings of Torah.