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3Isaac IsraeliIn Jorge J. E. Gracia & Timothy B. Noone (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Blackwell. 2005.
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1SaadiahIn Jorge J. E. Gracia & Timothy B. Noone (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Blackwell. 2005.
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3GersonidesIn Jorge J. E. Gracia & Timothy B. Noone (eds.), A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Blackwell. 2005.
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Islamic and Jewish NeoplatonismsIn Svetla Slaveva-Griffin & Pauliina Remes (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism, Routledge. 2014.
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24Ibn Gabirol's theology of desire: matter and method in Jewish medieval NeoplatonismCambridge University Press. 2013.Drawing on Arabic passages from Ibn Gabirol's original Fons Vitae text, and highlighting philosophical insights from his Hebrew poetry, Sarah Pessin develops a "Theology of Desire" at the heart of Ibn Gabirol's eleventh-century cosmo-ontology. She challenges centuries of received scholarship on his work, including his so-called Doctrine of Divine Will. Pessin rejects voluntarist readings of the Fons Vitae as opposing divine emanation. She also emphasizes Pseudo-Empedoclean notions of "Divine Des…Read more
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Solomon Ibn Gabirol: Universal Hylomorphism and the Psychic ImaginationDissertation, The Ohio State University. 2000.In this project, I offer an extended treatment of Gabirol's metaphysical doctrine of universal hylomorphism . My thesis is that, for Gabirol , matter signifies the most sublime moment of the Neoplatonic Intellect, and, by extension, the pre-determinate, essential existence which each thing has in virtue of its subsistence in said Intellect. My reading thus identifies matter with a grade of pure Being. Drawing upon Latin, Hebrew and Arabic Fons Vitae materials, I develop and support this thesis i…Read more
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50The Function of Metaphor in Medieval Neoplatonism_ _, written by Sarah PessinInternational Journal of the Platonic Tradition 9 (2): 249-252. 2015.
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31Matter, Metaphor, and Privative PointingAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 76 (1): 75-88. 2002.This study shows how, in its overall ability to shed light on the vexing complexity of human being, Maimonides’ discourse on matter—treated via metaphors or seen as itself a metaphor—emerges as a venerable guide, pointing the careful reader to the most important truths about perfected humanity within the Guide of the Perplexed. After examining and harmonizing Maimonides’ dual metaphors of matter (matter as the married harlot and the woman of valor) in this way, I show how metaphor as a literary …Read more
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22From Mystery to Laughter to Trembling Generosity: Agono-Pluralistic Ethics in Connolly v. LevinasInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 24 (5): 615-638. 2016.After considering core ‘interruptions’ of identity and justice in the post-secularist agonisms of Connolly and Levinas, I mine their views for core practical insights about the possibilities for theist-atheist respect. After considering Connolly on ‘content v. comportment’ and after exploring the virtue of mystery as part of a mystery/contestability/generosity triad, as well as Connolly’s, Levinas’, Nietzsche’s and Bergson’s levels of optimism and pessimism about theism, I end by pointing to cra…Read more
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30Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment: Deciphering Scripture and Midrash in The Guide of the Perplexed (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 41 (1): 126-127. 2003.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Philosophy 41.1 (2003) 126-127 [Access article in PDF] James Arthur Diamond. Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment: Deciphering Scripture and Midrash in The Guide of the Perplexed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. Pp. viii + 235. Paper, $20.95. In his text about the nature of Maimonidean text, Diamond shows us firsthand how the great medieval Jewish thinker's use of biblical and rab…Read more
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9On glimpsing the face of God in Maimonides: wonder, "hylomorphic apophasis" and the divine prayer shawlTópicos: Revista de Filosofía 42 (1): 75-106. 2012.It is common to interpret Maimonides as emphasizing the unknowability of God’s essence. In this paper, Sarah Pessin asks us to supplement this interpretation with the additional sense that God’s essence is also knowable for Maimonides. Analyzing Maimonides’ treatment of Exodus 33-34 and his treatment of the various ways of knowing and not knowing “God’s Face” and “God’s Back,” Pessin identifies “philosophical wonder” as a special state in which philosophers and prophets apprehend nature in such …Read more
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40Hebdomads: Boethius meets the neopythagoreansJournal of the History of Philosophy 37 (1): 29-48. 1999.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Hebdomads: Boethius Meets the Neopythagoreans1Sarah Pessin1the thesis of this article is three-fold. First, I suggest, uncontroversially, that Boethius was in many ways influenced by Neopythagorean ideas. Second, I recommend that in light of our appreciation of his Neopythagorean inclinations in at least some of his writings, we understand his esoteric reference to the “hebdomads”—at the outset of his treatise often called by that na…Read more
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Solomon Ibn Gabirol [Avicebron]The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at Http://Plato. Stanford. Edu/Archives/Win2010/Entries/Ibn—Gabirol. forthcoming.
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