scholarly journals Does Maimonides'sMishneh TorahForbid Reading theGuide of the Perplexed? On Platonic Punishments for Freethinkers

AJS Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-379
Author(s):  
Yehuda Halper
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
The City ◽  
Guide Of The Perplexed

AbstractIn one passage of theMishneh Torah, Maimonides explicitly forbids Jews from philosophical inquiry or even freethinking. This prohibition apparently includes a ban on reading or thinking about the topics of theGuide of the Perplexed. This paper argues that Maimonides'sMishneh Torahpresents a consistent rejection of open philosophical inquiry. However, what is prohibited in theMishneh Torahis not only permitted in theGuide, but the terms of the prohibition can be used as an outline of the structure of theGuide. That is to say, theGuidein a sense covers precisely the topics whose inquiry is forbidden to Jews in theMishneh Torah. In theMishneh TorahMaimonides does not suggest a punishment in this world for freethinkers, but in theGuidehe punishes freethinkers with more study, especially metaphysical inquiry. It is possible that theGuideitself is the punishment for freethinking as defined by theMishneh Torah. This kind of intellectual punishment has a parallel in Plato'sLaws, where freethinkers are sentenced to spend five years living in the center of the city, studying physics and metaphysics with city elders.

Aristippus of Cyrene

2020 ◽  
pp. 380-411
Author(s):  
Voula Tsouna
Keyword(s):  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Ethical Conduct ◽  
The Other ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Relative Value ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

“Aristippus of Cyrene” re-evaluates the evidence concerning, on the one hand, Aristippus’ alleged hedonism and, on the other, his affiliation with Socrates and the Socratic circle. The central thesis of the chapter is this: even though some sources attribute to Aristippus the sort of ethical hedonism that we know to have been held by his grandson (Aristippus the Younger), there is strong evidence that in fact Aristippus of Cyrene was not an ethical hedonist but endorsed Socratic concerns and values. These latter include philosophical inquiry focused on ethics, the paramount importance of philosophy for education and the care of one’s soul, concern to develop the virtues and assess the relative value of external goods, the crucial role of reason and prudence in ethical conduct, the ethical implications of systematically pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, and the rationalism that should determine one’s attitudes toward relatives, acquaintances, fellow-citizens, and the city itself.

On Politics, Irony, and Plato's Socrates as Derrida's Pharmakon

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Matthew Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
The City

Abstract This paper challenges the reading of Derridean deconstruction as a necessarily antiauthoritarian version of “hermeneutics as politics.” It does so by critically rereading Derrida's 1968 essay “Plato's Pharmacy.” Part 1 reconstructs Derrida's key claims in “Plato's Pharmacy,” turning on the ambiguous signifier “pharmakon” and the treatment of writing in the Phaedrus. Part 2 examines Derrida's three claims in “Plato's Pharmacy” concerning the political, putatively antiauthoritarian significance of his deconstruction of “platonism.” Part 3 contests these claims, arguing that Derrida cannot comprehend Socratic irony since he is blind to the political shaping of Plato's dialogic writing, as the artful attempt to present and inspire philosophical inquiry within the city, while avoiding the condemnation directed against Socrates by the men of Athens in 399 BCE. Finally, I argue that Derrida's indebtedness to Heidegger underlies these shortcomings in his reading of Plato.

Hospitals: N.Y. Appellate Court Denies Move to Privatize Public Hospital

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-203
Author(s):  
Robert Chatham
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
Municipal Hospital ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Benefit ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Benefit Corporation ◽  
The City

The Court of Appeals of New York held, in Council of the City of New York u. Giuliani, slip op. 02634, 1999 WL 179257 (N.Y. Mar. 30, 1999), that New York City may not privatize a public city hospital without state statutory authorization. The court found invalid a sublease of a municipal hospital operated by a public benefit corporation to a private, for-profit entity. The court reasoned that the controlling statute prescribed the operation of a municipal hospital as a government function that must be fulfilled by the public benefit corporation as long as it exists, and nothing short of legislative action could put an end to the corporation's existence.In 1969, the New York State legislature enacted the Health and Hospitals Corporation Act (HHCA), establishing the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) as an attempt to improve the New York City public health system. Thirty years later, on a renewed perception that the public health system was once again lacking, the city administration approved a sublease of Coney Island Hospital from HHC to PHS New York, Inc. (PHS), a private, for-profit entity.

ASHA Convention 2013

ASHA Leader ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 46-48
Keyword(s):  
Ice Cream ◽  
Annual Convention ◽  
The City ◽  
Rich History

This year's Annual Convention features some sweet new twists like ice cream and free wi-fi. But it also draws on a rich history as it returns to Chicago, the city where the association's seeds were planted way back in 1930. Read on through our special convention section for a full flavor of can't-miss events, helpful tips, and speakers who remind why you do what you do.

App it Up in the City of Stars

ASHA Leader ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Sweeney
Keyword(s):  
The City

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Gregorovius ◽  
Annie Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
The Middle Ages

History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferdinand Gregorovius ◽  
Annie Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
The Middle Ages

Becoming Literate in the City

1958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Serpell ◽  
Linda Baker ◽  
Susan Sonnenschein
Keyword(s):  
The City

Ras al Khaimah: further archaeological discoveries

Antiquity ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 50 (200) ◽  
pp. 216-222
Author(s):  
Beatrice De Cardi
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
The State ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Ras a1 Khaimah is the most northerly of the seven states comprising the United Arab Emirates and its Ruler, H. H. Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qasimi, is keenly interested in the history of the state and its people. Survey carried out there jointly with Dr D. B. Doe in 1968 had focused attention on the site of JuIfar which lies just north of the present town of Ras a1 Khaimah (de Cardi, 1971, 230-2). Julfar was in existence in Abbasid times and its importance as an entrep6t during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-the Portuguese Period-is reflected by the quantity and variety of imported wares to be found among the ruins of the city. Most of the sites discovered during the survey dated from that period but a group of cairns near Ghalilah and some long gabled graves in the Shimal area to the north-east of the date-groves behind Ras a1 Khaimah (map, FIG. I) clearly represented a more distant past.

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