Excerpt from Spinoza, Descartes and Maimonides The Discourse on Method commences with an account of Descartes' search for truth. From the fact that although good sense is common to all, yet opinions on every impor tant question are different, he concluded that the existence of these differences, apparent particularly between and within the various systems of philosophy, must be due to faults in method. Even in the sphere which commanded most agreement and where demonstration had been achieved, that of mathematics, the methods commonly employed were too confused and fatiguing to be taken as a model. It was necessary, therefore, first to disengage the essential procedure of the purest types of mathematics, and then to take over the result for application to all the sc1ences alike. The characteristics of the logic so achieved might be expected to be the same as those of geometry and algebra - simplicity of premiss; universality of application; and inevitableness of conclusion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Until the last century, it was generally agreed that Maimonides was a great defender of Judaism, and Spinoza—as an Enlightenment advocate for secularization—among its key opponents. However, a new scholarly consensus has recently emerged that the teachings of the two philosophers were in fact much closer than was previously thought. In his perceptive new book, Joshua Parens sets out to challenge the now predominant view of Maimonides as a protomodern forerunner to Spinoza—and to show that a chief reason to read Maimonides is in fact to gain distance from our progressively secularized worldview. Turning the focus from Spinoza’s oft-analyzed Theologico-Political Treatise, this book has at its heart a nuanced analysis of his theory of human nature in the Ethics. Viewing this work in contrast to Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed, it makes clear that Spinoza can no longer be thought of as the founder of modern Jewish identity, nor should Maimonides be thought of as having paved the way for a modern secular worldview. Maimonides and Spinoza dramatically revises our understanding of both philosophers.