The Guide to the Perplexed: A New Translation

by Moses Maimonides, Lenn E. Goodman (Translator), Phillip I. Lieberman (Translator)

A landmark new translation of the most significant text in medieval Jewish thought. Written in Arabic and completed around 1190, the Guide to the Perplexed is among the most powerful and influential living texts in Jewish philosophy, a masterwork navigating the straits between religion and science, logic and revelation. The author, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides or as Rambam, was a Sephardi Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician. He wrote his Guide in the form of a letter to a disciple. But the perplexity it aimed to cure might strike anyone who sought to square logic, mathematics, and the sciences with biblical and rabbinic traditions. In this new translation by philosopher Lenn E. Goodman and historian Phillip I. Lieberman, Maimonides' warm, conversational voice and clear explanatory language come through as never before in English. Maimonides knew well the challenges facing serious inquirers at the confluence of the two great streams of thought and learning that Arabic writers labeled 'aql and naql , reason and tradition. The aim of the Guide , he wrote, is to probe the mysteries of physics and metaphysics. But mysteries, to Maimonides, were not conundrums to be celebrated for their obscurity. They were problems to be solved. Maimonides' methods and insights resonate throughout the work of later Jewish thinkers, rationalists, and mystics, and in the work of philosophers like Thomas Aquinas, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Newton. The Guide continues to inspire inquiry, discovery, and vigorous debate among philosophers, theologians, and lay readers today. Goodman and Lieberman's extensive and detailed commentary provides readers with historical context and philosophical enlightenment, giving generous access to the nuances, complexities, and profundities of what is widely agreed to be the most significant textual monument of medieval Jewish thought, a work that still offers a key to those who hope to harmonize religious commitments and scientific understanding.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Judaism, Religion, Jewish

704 pages, Hardcover

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[R.L.S.D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work of epistolary medieval philosophy is the Jewish equivalent of the Summa, and nothing short of a masterpiece. The translation sings and the notes apparatus is tremendously engaging.

Two things I enjoyed especially:

- The rich, dead serious exploration of the influence and intelligence of the spheres. "Dost thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the drawstrings of Canopus?...Dost thou know the rules of heaven or set its charge over the earth?" Job 38:31-33

-The unpacking of Ezequiel's visions (still the most overwhelming book of the Bible to me). "The sublime and momentous idea that Ezequiel was moved prophetically to teach us by describing the Chariot is identical to what Isaiah taught more concisely."

Three things I appreciate more after reading this book:

- The vulgarity of incarnational theology
-The absurdity of the Trinity
-The foolishness of the Gospel

Two things that are not likely to feature prominently in my paradigm of the universe:

-Endless discussion of the relationship between faith and reason (although Maimonides' equating of reason and experience is compelling).

- Concepts of religious faith that take the ladder as the best analogy for our progess oriented approach to God. (In contrast with a paradigm of spirituality as receptive.)

[Shmu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 4:35

This is the most in-depth I have ever read a book, other than maybe Critique of Pure Reason. But that was in college, in an actual class: this one was a solo send. The strongest philosophical and theological experience I've taken in a while, and I'm not surprised it took me over a month. Several things I had to go back and reread, often several times over. Lieberman and Goodman's new translation is phenomenal for several reasons, which I'll talk about later.

At heart this book wants to create a metaphysical and epistemological justification for G-d that unifies the accounts in both the account of Creation (Genesis 1) and the Account of Yechezkel's vision of the Chariot (Ezekiel 1). It is explicitly addressed to readers with strong knowledge of Torah and modern science, be it physics, mathematics, and philosophy. While my Torah knowledge isn't nearly up to par, modern science has greatly evolved since the 1100s and 1200s, so I felt good with that going in. (Rambam wrote pre-Newton, Planck, Einstein, and Kepler, so his accounts of earthly motion and Heavenly spherical motion, while attempting to explain retrograde motion and the notion of infinite returning motion to necessitate sphericality, dont really hold up. But this is the same issue that arises when you look at Aristotle under a modern lens. Even the notions of space and time constructed by Newton, Leibniz, and Kant fall away with relativity and quantum mech, since Kantian unchanging space and time, and Leibnizian monads dont really line up. It's unfortunate cause all of these thinkers line up their metaphysics to not violate physics, and all of them were experts on the most modern physics, they were just a few hundred years ahead of their time. Aren't we all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Of course, Rambam is well aware of many other accounts of metaphysics that explain possibilities of G-d, eternity, the world, time, the spheres of motion, and all else, so this book is chock full of takes on other thinkers, mostly Chazal, Aristotle, and the Islamic Mutakalimun. Rambam has immense respect for both Aristotle and the Kalam movement, he just finds them both to be a tad wrong. He generally agrees with Kalamist conclusions, but the last several chapters of Part 1 push against their reasoning. The Aristotle section I find far more interesting: Aristotle, invoking the hottest new trend of Ancient Greece, logic(!!!), starts with twenty five axioms and lemmas, and desires to show the 26th, that the universe is eternal. Rambam puts far more work than arguably Aristotle himself did in justifying those 25, but then puts in even more to show the impossibility of an eternal universe: Creation is needed! I thought a lot about the nature of modality as a result of both this and the argument about divine knowledge and human free will. Rambam views the existence of G-d as modality (and ontologically) necessary, with the world depending on Him. But the world itself was brought about in a choice made outside of time, and as such wasn't necessary, and wasn't entailed by the existence of G-d. (The entire first 35ish chapters of the book aim to explain words in order to prevent the accidental heresy of attributing either human attributes or modal accidental properties to G-d.) But then omniscience is also necessary. How then can we have human free will. Rambam goes at length to necessitate human free will, and right at the end, justifies it in the presence of divine omniscience by saying: Consider person A making decision X or decision -X. Consider fact B:

B: G-d knows whether person A will make choice X

Then we assign a truth value of "true" to B. This is crucially not the same as imposing a decision one way or another on A.

Brief interlude to give credit to the translators: L and G have like 1500 footnotes in this book! I read all of them, for the full experience, and they add a lot, like a lot a lot. Many many notes on Aristotle, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Razi, al-Ghazali, al-Farabi, Plato, and especially Avicenna, the guy I most want to read now that this is done. They explain in great detail the differences between them and other translators, and really go above and beyond in providing essentially a three-in-one translation, study guide, and commentary.

My review is relatively short but I don't want it to sound like I'm short selling it, this is legitimately the most impressive book of philosophy I have yet read. It touches on science, political philosophy (Part 2 chapter 40 is very unique, and is Rambam's single mass political polemic in this book. It is positioned right before his take on prophecy, which I view as no accident.), religious apologetics (so the last 20 chapters of the book are a mass grounding of all of the Mitzvot in terms of how they better our lives. Rambam notes that attempting to ground Mitzvot, and then circumvent the grounds, is exactly the mistake Shlomo Hamelech made. Then does it anyways. I find it a very nice touch, especially since he had already written his Sefer Hamitzvot.), and so so so so so much more.

As a personal note, I'm very happy that I've gotten far better at reading larger, more academic, and more philosophical texts. The future is bright!

Oh yeah, the first eight or so chapters of Part 3 are his account of Ezekiel's vision. G+L's footnotes are really really helpful for this part. Read at your own peril.

Genuinely the hardest I have ever thought about a book, and not an experience I will ever forget. Finishing this was truly the perfect way to wrap up summer 2025.

Read this! Seriously!

[Marcos Augusto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completed in 1190, it is Maimonides most extensive philosophic work, in it, he seeks to resolve conflicts in Jewish thought and practice between religious and secular knowledge. Written as a letter to student who cannot decide whether to follow philosophy or the teachings of religion, it's both a defense of negative theology and a theory of jurisprudence, arguing that by acquiring correct opinions and then knowledge, a person may improve their soul and so fulfill the commandment 'to love God'.

Since the highest human achievement is the perfection of the intellect, which is impossible without the pursuit of truth (as a sacred document, the Bible is a source of truth), and while the truths contained in the Bible may not always be apparent, in principle they are there if one wishes to dig deeply enough.

This statement has legal and political repercussions, on a political level, this means that the state must do more than protect life and property; it must see to it that all its citizens are educated in theological matters. On a personal level, it means that morality is not an end in itself but a way of controlling the passions and creating an atmosphere in which science and philosophy can flourish.

[Jason Chavez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me awhile to get through it because I had to read other books first. I recommend reading and becoming familiar with biblical texts, Talmudic scholarship, and Aristotelian metaphysics. For me, without that background might I found it dense and esoteric, especially in sections dissecting prophecy and divine attributes.

Having that foundation, I highly recommend reading this book. It’s worth reading more than once.