Q&A: The Difference Between the Early and Later Principles in Maimonides
The Difference Between the Early and Later Principles in Maimonides
Question
The Rabbi says in the second book of the trilogy that the first 4 principles in Maimonides are not like the last 4 principles, because the first ones (that He exists, that He is not a body, that He is one, that He is primordial) are meaningless.
I don’t really understand what the difference is between the first ones and the last ones, and why the first ones are meaningless. After all, both the first ones and the last ones deal with facts about God (His essence or His conduct).
Answer
Did I write that all four of the first ones are meaningless? I don’t remember that. Maybe I wrote that dealing with them is, in most cases, meaningless. Indeed, I do not see much point in discussing most of them. That He exists is not meaningless. I too have discussed His existence quite a bit. That is, of course, not a principle in Jewish thought but in philosophy. Therefore the tools are borrowed from there as well. That He is one is indeed not very well defined. That He is not a body sounds reasonable, but even there I do not see much to discuss.