Prophecy according to Maimonides, combined with practical wisdom.

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asked 8 years ago

peace,
In the MUN BH it is described that prophecy is received from the influence of the intellect acting on the imagining force. Are these descriptions still valid? Yes, from what I understand, Maimonides’ perception of nature is largely incorrect. Does this apply to Maimonides’ perception of the human soul as well as to metaphysics that includes distinct intellects?
thanks!

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מיכי Staff answered 8 years ago

I have no idea. I don’t really understand these concepts, and I doubt how much Maimonides could know how prophecy works. As far as I’m concerned, this entire discourse is a translation of Aristotle into Torah-Hebrew and is devoid of any religious or Torah value, just as Aristotle’s collection of speculations on active and distinct minds, which I doubt he himself understood what he was talking about, is devoid of any scientific or metaphysical value. In my opinion, studying these materials (including parts of the Torah Foundations) is abrogation of the Torah.

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ש"ש replied 8 years ago

Thanks for the quick response,
But I want to clarify a bit, why can't the Rambam know how prophecy works, so simply that he fabricated things from his heart using Aristotle's theories? Because he often relies on Jewish sources for his words. And if that's the case, why should I trust other things he said? And isn't there a point in distinguishing between the technical mechanism that changes with the development of science and the essence/message of the things he writes about the basis of faith?

מיכי Staff replied 8 years ago

How would he know this? Show me from those “sources in Judaism” (what is this?) can we deduce how prophecy works?
These are his understandings drawn from his intellectual world. As such, I do not see them as binding authoritative statements, nor as statements that are necessarily correct. I am as qualified for this as he is. Do not trust anything he said. Except in halacha, where he has status (and even that is not absolute), and this is not because he is necessarily right but because he has been accepted. The mechanism of acceptance can be useful in relation to norms but not in relation to facts (and mental statements are facts). I have explained this here on the site several times.

אלי replied 8 years ago

If I may add,
Rambam”s entire discussion on the question of how prophecy is accomplished
is only to distinguish between prophets and dreamers and magicians
for the concept of abundance that he uses is dealt with in its definition in Part 2, Chapter 12, and there it was emphasized that we have no way
to understand things except by way of an image of a spring that flows from all sides