Gersonides

Levi ben Gershon ( Levi ben Gerson also or Levi ben Gershom, called Latin Hebraeus Leo, Leo de Balneolis or Gersonides, * 1288 in Bagnols -sur -Cèze ( Southern France), † in Perpignan probably on April 20, 1344) was a Jewish mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, and Talmudic scholar.

Little is known about his resume. He was a descendant of a family of scholars, a long time lived in Orange, later in Avignon and Perpignan, and had contact with influential Christians. Although he was also called " Rabbi Levi ben Gershon ," he had never worked as head of a Jewish community. As a young man he was introduced in all branches of philosophy of his time.

The lunar crater Rabbi Levi is named after him.

Writings

At the age of almost 30 years, he began his writing Sefer milhamot Adonai ( God's battles, 1317-1329 ), his most important work, which aroused some opposition from the theological side, and sometimes cited by critics as " Milhamot in Adonai" ( fighting with God ) was. In 1319 he wrote Sefer ha - ha - hekkesh yashar (Book of the correct syllogism ), one of Averroes ( Ibn Rushd ), influenced treatise on problems of Aristotelian logic. His mathematical masterpiece Maaseh Hoshev called ( Practical Art of the computer), and Sefer ha - Mispar ( book number), is obtained in two different editorial from 1321 and 1322. The first part of the two -part work is a collection of 68 theorems and proofs for arithmetic, algebra and combinatorics; the second part deals with the basic arithmetic operations, square and cube root extraction, ratios and proportions, and adds an extensive collection of mixed problems.

An imaginary as an introduction to trigonometry excerpt from the astronomical chapters of the Milhamot Adonai he dedicated in 1342 in a Latin translation by Petrus de Alexandria under the title De sinibus, CHORDIS et arcubus ( From the arcs, circle cuts, and arcs) Pope Clement VI .. This work contained not only sines with up to five digits accuracy, but also a novel derivative of Sinustheorems, also adopted from Milhamot Adonai treatments of the camera obscura and the Jacob rod ( a device for measuring the angular distance of stars, which in the following years become a major navigation instrument of European seafaring was ).

1343, a year before his death, he wrote at the request of Philip of Vitry, bishop of Meaux, the only Latin music obtained theoretical treatise De numeri Harmonicis. Get also are glosses to the first five books of the Elements of Euclid and a font Hibbur hokhmat ha - tishboret ( about the science of geometry ) with an argument for the fifth postulate ( the parallel postulate ) Euclid, and also as astrological writing a prognostication about the conjunction of the Year 1345.

Levi ben Gershon was also exegete the Bible that connected the historical- literal statement with moral practical applications ( to'aliyot ) of the biblical text. His exegetical work includes comments on the Pentateuch, to books of the Prophets ( Nevi'im Perush al rishonim ) and most of the books of the sacred writers (Book of Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel ), of which his commentary on book of Job, one of the first printed in the Hebrew language and writing books was printed (1477 in Ferrara) and 1543/44 in Venice in a rhyming summary of Zerah Barfat.

In addition to these scientific and exegetical writings Levi ben Gershon also liturgical poems ( pizmonim ) and prayers ( viddui ) leave, and two astronomical poems - one about the Jacob's staff - and two Purim parodies, among the latter a book " on the bottle prophets " ( Sefer ha - ha -navi baqbuq ) in which it has been suggested a source of inspiration for the character poem on the wine bottle in the posthumous Cinquième libre of Rabelais (Edition of 1564 ).

Philosophy

Levi ben Gershon - though no rabbi - was repeatedly tackled in matters of Halacha for advice. In his philosophical writings, he emphasized the practical application of his views.

He was an Aristotelian and strongly influenced by Ibn Rushd; Neoplatonic arguments not found in him. On the other hand, he was always an independent thinker. As the only Jewish Peripatetics he dared to defend the Aristotelian system as a whole ( even if it disagreed with the one or the other doctrine of Jewish theology ). But he was not afraid to also clearly express one of Aristotle (or Ibn Rushd ) dissenting opinion.

His central theme was a synthesis of biblical ( Talmudic ) and philosophical ( Aristotelian ) doctrines. In this sense, his main work Sefer milhamot Adonai treated in six departments of natural philosophy problems (especially Maimonides ) had only been dealt with inadequately by his predecessors. These were in particular the nature of matter, the immortality of the soul, prophecy and dreams, the omniscience of God and divine providence, and the heavenly spheres and the nature of the stars.

From Levis view God is the ultimate thinking and at the same time the highest form principle of being. God created the world, though, but that of an eternal and therefore unerschaffbaren matter. For him, God was not all-encompassing knowledge, but limited to the laws of the cosmos. In this sense, the work of God is sufficient as a creator, to the world he denied a present action of God. The "active" part of the soul he regarded as immortal.

He developed an astronomical theory that contained significant deviations from the traditional worldview of Ptolemy. His views - shown in the fifth section of the Sefer milhamot Adonai - He supported by our own observations, which he continued until about 1340. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola quoted his astronomical writings several times in the Disputationes in Astrologiam; nor Johannes Kepler made ​​every effort, for a copy of Clement VI. to get into Latin translated astronomical- mathematical part.

Levi ben Gershon applies not only to Maimonides as the most important medieval philosopher of Judaism. He was often because of his expression and his unconventional ideas criticized ( and even denounced as a heretic ); perhaps for that very reason he has influenced philosophical thinking in the 19th century.