Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T23:56:07.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Maimonides on the Nature of Good and Evil

from Part II - Human Beginnings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2021

Daniel Frank
Affiliation:
Purdue University, Indiana
Aaron Segal
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Get access

Summary

As is often the case with subjects in the labyrinthine work that is the Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides’ discussions of the concepts of good and evil are scattered throughout and often interspersed among other topics. In this essay I will endeavor to untangle some of the questions surrounding his treatment of good and evil – or good and bad – specifically as they relate to ethical action. But even limiting oneself to the ethical realm leaves open multiple avenues. Maimonides has much to say concerning virtue ethics, for example, whether with regard to specific virtues, or more generally with his well-known discussion of the Aristotelian doctrine of the mean. Given that our focus here is the Guide, however, where discussion of these issues is more limited than in Mishneh Torah and Shemonah Perakim, and that detailed scholarly work is readily available in these other areas, we will here devote ourselves to a road less traveled but of great significance to the trajectory of the Guide itself.

Type
Chapter
Information
Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed
A Critical Guide
, pp. 60 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×