Abstract
Hasdai ben Judah Crescas (c. 1340–1410/1411) is the last outstanding original Jewish philosopher in the late medieval period. Although Crescas had no interest in science per se, he was embroiled in precisely the same set of scientific issues that occupied scholastic philosophers after the condemnation of 1277. His major work Sefer Or Adonai (The Book of the Light of the Lord, 1405–1410), finished several months before his death, is a polemic against his two Aristotelian predecessors Maimonides and Gersonides. In this work, Crescas sought to undermine the Aristotelian cosmology and physics that pervaded the works of his predecessors. Crescas’ critique of Aristotelianism was momentous in that while arguing for the liberation of Scripture, he was arguing as well for the liberation of science. Thus, many of his anti-Aristotelian arguments contain what turn out to be scientific innovations.
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Rudavsky, T. (2020). Hasdai Crescas. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_203
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