Knowra Hasdai Crescas Hasdai Crescas Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340–1410/11) was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who criticized Aristotelian physics and metaphysics while defending Jewish belief and practice.
Aristotelianism : A philosophical tradition based on Aristotle’s writings about nature, knowledge, ethics, and first principles. Crescas challenged its claims about the universe, causation, and the limits of possibility.
Infinity : The quality of being unbounded or without limit in size, number, or extent. Crescas rejected the Aristotelian denial of actual infinity and defended infinite space.
Barcelona : A major city in northeastern Spain and a medieval center of commerce and Jewish life. Crescas lived and taught in Barcelona before the persecutions of 1391.
Or Adonai : Hasdai Crescas’s major philosophical work, completed around 1410, criticizing Aristotelian doctrines and presenting Jewish belief. This book gives the fullest account of Crescas’s philosophical system.
Aristotle : An ancient Greek philosopher whose works shaped philosophy and science across the medieval world. His account of nature supplied the framework Crescas set out to criticize.
Vacuum : A region containing no matter, distinguished from spaces filled by physical bodies. Crescas allowed the possibility of a vacuum against a central Aristotelian position.
Crown of Aragon : A medieval composite monarchy centered on Aragon and including territories around the western Mediterranean. Crescas’s rabbinic and political activity took place within its territories.
The Refutation of the Christian Principles : A polemical work by Hasdai Crescas examining Christian doctrines from a Jewish perspective. It applies his philosophical and theological reasoning to disputes between Judaism and Christianity.
Maimonides : A medieval Jewish philosopher, legal scholar, and physician who sought to reconcile Judaism with Aristotelian philosophy. Crescas argued against influential positions in Maimonides’s philosophical theology.
Causality : The relation by which one event or condition produces or explains another. His account of causal necessity challenged assumptions about contingency and divine action.
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