Greeks, Jews, and the Enlightenment: Moses Mendelssohn's Socrates

Romans, Greeks, and Jews: The World of Jesus and the Disciples

From Moses to Moses

Had he not created the first systematic and comprehensive code of Jewish law (Mishneh Torah) would his successors in that project, R. Jacob ben Asher, author of the Arba’ah Turim, and R. Joseph Karo, author of the Shulhan Arukh, have had the vision and courage to embark on what would have been, if not for Maimonides, a revolutionary innovation? The Mishneh Torah is revolutionary in three ways: ...

Aberdeen and the Enlightenment

important contributions made to British rheumatology by the Medical Research Council. As with so many well-meant volumes of this sort, the book becomes more than a trifle self-congratulatory. I have no doubt that in this country the Heberden Society was a much-needed stimulus to the development ofa group of professional rheumatologists, for whom the Society provided self-respect at a time when ...

Socrates and Superiority

I propose a n alternative interpretation of the Crito. The arguments tha t a re typically taken to be Socrates’ primary arguments against escape are actually supplementary arguments that rely on what I call the Superiority Thesis, the thesis tha t the s ta te and i ts citizens a re members of a moral hierarchy where those below are tied by bonds of obligation to those above. I provide evidence ...

Misunderstanding Socrates

THE NOTION OF A Socratic PHILOSOPHY, as distinct from what is commonly known as Platonism, has its origins in the work of Gregory Vlastos1 and continues today through the scholars he has influenced.2 The Socratic movement in Plato studies maintains that one can identify in certain Platonic dialogues a philosophical method and a collection of philosophical theses which may properly be attributed...