The Radical Enlightenment of Solomon Maimon: Judaism, Heresy, and Philosophy

by Abraham P. Socher

With extraordinary chutzpa and deep philosophical seriousness, Solomon ben Joshua of Lithuania renamed himself after his medieval intellectual hero, Moses Maimonides. Maimon was perhaps the most brilliant and certainly the most controversial figure of the late-eighteenth century Jewish Enlightenment. He scandalized rabbinic authorities, embarrassed Moses Mendelssohn, provoked Kant, charmed Goethe, and inspired Fichte, among others. This is the first study of Maimon to integrate his idiosyncratic philosophical idealism with his popular autobiography, and with his early unpublished exegetical, mystical, and Maimonidean work in Hebrew. In doing so, it illuminates the intellectual and spiritual possibilities open to a European Jew at the turn of the eighteenth century.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good intellectual biography of a highly underrated, obscure and eccentric character in the story of the German Enlightenment. Because of the restrictions on Jews in the 18th century Maimon had access to a different corpus. Instead of adhering to the doctrine of Rational Psychology, promoted by Wolff, Cartesianism, and the bleached white Spinoza rip-off mannequin that is clothed in Christianity (Leibniz), Maimon used the Medieval Aristotelian-Averroës school, Yeshiva, and the up and coming Hasidism. He compared Kant to Moses. One threw down the tablets and the other showed us the tables of judgement and understanding. Maimon temporarily patched a resolution for Kant‘s dualism. This ad hoc resolution permeated their intellectual context, and was then taken up by the next generation of German Idealists. Maimon contributed significantly to developing the (form of) Idealism we are now familiar with. So credit where it’s due.