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This volume is planned as a companion to the Routledge History of Islamic Philosophy,
and both take their place in the Routledge History of World Philosophies, a series
designed to supplement and amplify the Routledge History of Philosophy. The idea of
placing histories of Islamic and Jewish philosophy in such close proximity to a history of
Western philosophy is in our view timely and important. Jewish and Islamic philosophy
are often viewed as mere footnotes in general histories of Western philosophy. The
reason for this is not hard to discover. The ‘West’ has historically been defined in
exclusivist terms, in ways which make no reference to Judaism or Islam, by contrast to
Greco-Roman, Christian, and Enlightenment culture. All these designations seem to
bypass the traditions of Judaism and Islam. Of course, there are liminal cases, Spinoza
perhaps being the prime example. But the example tends to prove the rule: Spinoza was
excommunicated from the Jewish community.
But as scholarship proceeds apace, such cultural imperialism as supports an exclusivist
understanding of the ‘West’ cannot stand. More and more we learn about Jewish
Hellenism (no oxymoron), the Jewish roots of Christianity, and a Jewish Enlightenment,
and what we learn is that Jews gave as much as they took. Such a dialectical interchange
makes most timely the appearance of a history of Jewish philosophy which strives to
present Jewish philosophy as part of the general history of Western philosophy. In this
regard it is to be noted that our authors are not simply concerned with direct historical
influences of Jewish thinkers upon non-Jewish thinkers, such as Maimonides upon
Aquinas, but they are also concerned to show how the philosophical issues which
concerned Greek, Latin, and German thinkers had parallel developments in Jewish
thought. The philosophical influences move in both directions, and this is as it should be
if one views the philosophical traditions in the West as inclusive of non-Christian
philosophical traditions. Jewish philosophy is desegregated by seeing both how it
influences and how it is influenced by extra-Jewish sources. There simply is no Jewish
philosophy apart from general philosophy. In this way, then, we hope that this volume
will begin to break down long-established barriers.
This project commenced in autumn 1991 and was completed in summer 1995. That
such a large undertaking proceeded so expeditiously is in no small measure due to the
seriousness and hard work of all involved. We thank our contributors and the staff at
Routledge (London) for their assistance. We are very grateful to Nina Edwards for her
work on the index. |