Q&A: Did Maimonides Really Write The Treatise on Logic? And What Importance Does It Have for Study?
Did Maimonides Really Write The Treatise on Logic? And What Importance Does It Have for Study?
Question
Hello Rabbi Michael, in your opinion, did Maimonides write The Treatise on Logic? Whether yes or no, do you think it is important for studying Jewish philosophy?
Answer
I have no idea. Is there some challenge to that attribution? I haven’t heard of one. Even if not, it was probably his cousin, who was also called Moses ben Maimon. In any case, there is no such thing as Jewish philosophy. There is philosophy that is correct and philosophy that is incorrect, and it doesn’t matter whether it came out of a Jewish womb or a gentile one. Logic is certainly important for the study of philosophy, but I really wouldn’t recommend studying logic from an ancient, outdated book. Today there are much better and more accurate books.
Discussion on Answer
The basics are presented clearly in Copi’s Introduction to Logic. But there are probably newer books that I don’t know. A more complex and difficult book is Hugo Bergmann’s Introduction to the Theory of Logic.
Okay, thank you very much, and one more question—I’ll try to make it the last one: how do you know whether a philosophy is correct or incorrect? Is its correctness something objective, or does each person define differently what is correct?
The truth of the claims is objective, but there is no objective (scientific) way to arrive at it. There are arguments and assumptions, and a person has to form a position about them.
See my column series, “What Is Philosophy?”
Okay, what do you recommend for logic? And I’d also be happy to get recommendations for a general introduction to philosophy.