Maimonides' Special Introductions in The Guide of the Perplexed

Abstract

The present paper tries to answer the following questions: whether or not, as Leo Strauss says, The Guide of the Perplexed is “a Jewish book written by a Jew to the Jews;” if so, in what sense it is “a Jewish book;” and how philosophy plays her role in the book. To answer these kinds of questions requires of course a comprehensive grasp and understanding of the book. But certain key texts may help us to offer tentative answers to those questions. The present paper tries to argue that some “special introductions, ”i.e., those passages that the author asks the reader to pay “attention” or indicates as “preface” or “introduction” in the main texts. The present paper aim sat investigating certain device of The Guide of the Perplexed and the intention of the author behind it, by illustrating two such “special introductions” in Guide I 73 and II 2.