Early in his career, Fernand Brunner became one of the few specialists on Ibn Gabirol, a Jewish philosopher and poet in 11th-century Spain, whose treatise, the Fons vitae, is known only in Latin translation. Brunner showed the coherence of this rarely studied version of Platonism and traced its impact on the scholastic philosophy of the succeeding centuries. His work was guided by a systematic interest in Platonic solutions to such problems as the relations of matter and form, and of God to the world. This volume includes a number of previously unpublished papers, several of which also provide broad expositions of a Platonic ontology. The author makes his reader aware that arguments as well as images must be taken seriously in the attempt to approach the Platonic tradition. Dès le début de sa carrière, Fernand Brunner est rapidement devenu l’un des rares spécialistes d’Ibn Gabirol, le poète philosophe juif espagnol du 11e siècle - dont le traité, le Fons vitæ, n’est connu qu’en version latine. Guidé dans ses recherches par un intérêt systématique pour les solutions platoniciennes aux problèmes des rapports entre la forme et la matière, et entre Dieu et le monde, Brunner a démontré la cohérence de cette interprétation rarement étudiée du platonisme et en a retracé l’effet sur la philosophie scolastique des siècles suivants. Ce volume comprend plusieurs exposés inédits traitant de l’ontologie platonicienne dont la compréhension, selon Brunner, est essentielle à tout historien de la philosophie. L’auteur fait prendre conscience à ses lecteurs de l’importance des arguments, tout comme des métaphores, dans toute tentative d’approche de la tradition platonique.

The first full-length treatment of Ibn Gabirol's philosophy in English, this study completely reinvents the medieval author of the Fountain of Life or Fons Vitae (known to many in the history of philosophy by his Latinized name, Avicebron). Developing Ibn Gabirol's vision in terms of a "Theology of Desire," the book rescues the voice of the eleventh-century Jewish poet-philosopher from centuries of misreadings as it sets out to examine the role of love, desire, and ethical self-transformation in medieval Jewish Neoplatonism.

This title was first published in 2001. A collection of fifteen studies which explore topics in the psychology and philosophy of mind of Plotinus, Augustine, and Boethius, as well as the development of Augustine's views on history and Roman religion.

This is the first reference ever devoted to medieval philosophy. It covers all areas of the field from 500-1500 including philosophers, philosophies, key terms and concepts. It also provides analyses of particular theories plus cultural and social contexts.

T. M. Rudavsky presents a new account of the development of Jewish philosophy from the tenth century to Spinoza in the seventeenth, viewed as part of an ongoing dialogue with medieval Christian and Islamic thought. Her aim is to provide a broad historical survey of major figures and schools within the medieval Jewish tradition, focusing on the tensions between Judaism and rational thought. This is reflected in particular philosophical controversies across a wide range of issues in metaphysics, language, cosmology, and philosophical theology. The book illuminates our understanding of medieval thought by offering a much richer view of the Jewish philosophical tradition, informed by the considerable recent research that has been done in this area.

A study of rabbinic texts about talking animals, examined in the context of Greek and Roman cultures.

This book attempts to explain the functioning of the combinatorial, semi-mechanical demonstrative techniques of Ramon Llull's 'Art', how it began as an apologetic instrument, how it developed through two main stages, and how it ended trying to reformulate key aspects of medieval Aristotelian logic.