This study has been an attempt to show how philosophy arose and developed in Judaism, that it was not a foreign element grafted onto it but was, instead, an inner need, a desire to constitute a Jewish anthropology. Humanity in general and the Noahide became synonyms.

In the past, there were attempts to limit or eliminate philosophical reflection from Jewish thought. In 1305, the rabbinate of Barcelona endeavored to ban the study of philosophy, led by Solomon ibn Adret (Rashba). Rashba argued that one devoted “to the books of the Greeks makes them the root (ikkar) and uproots (oker) the Torah of the Lord!” Such a charge, heard less today but not absent, must be answered.

If Jewish philosophy is to be a permissible Jewish activity, it must find its justification in the most evident structure of Judaism—halakhah. This was done best by Maimonides, I believe. The Talmud records the following dictum:

In codifying this prescription, Maimonides writes:

For Maimonides, Talmud or Gemara is primarily a method of inquiry, and all method is ultimately a philosophy of its subject matter. If Talmud is method, then it can be extended beyond its previous explication in a particular body of literature, for method is necessarily less explicit than data. This understanding of Talmud as method in the deepest sense is the greatest Jewish justification of philosophical reflection I know. As a method of inquiry, rather than a competing source of wisdom, it at all times respects the independent integrity of the object of its concern.