Armenianism and Adventism: Free Will in Greek, Jewish and Islamic Philosophies II

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

20 December 2010

God is interested in this world more than any other because it is just this universe that is struggling with the problem of evil and all eyes are turned here since the destiny of the universes out there, are dependent on the choices made on this earth. The focus of this part will be on Free Will  in Judaism.

Philo of Alexandria

Philo lived from 20 BCE to 50 CE. A number of influences can be listed on Philo: Bible, Palestinian Aggadah, Plato, Stoicism, and Neo-Pythagorianism. Pythagoras (531 BCE) at Croton in South Italy, believed in Metempsychosis and that the soul was of divine origin and imprisoned in the body. He interpreted the world in terms of numbers. His society lived according to strict discipline involving silence and abstinence. Neo-Pythagorianism is a revival form of pythagorian ideas. Philo had to allegorize the Bible cosmology to gain a hearing in his sophisticated Alexandrian environment.

On the matter of Free Will, Philo wrote in "The Unchangeableness of God" 45-49 (III page 33ff.) "And therefore it is reasonably held that the mind alone in all that makes us what we are, is indestructable. For it is the mind alone which the Father who begat it judged worthy of freedom, and loosening the fetters of necessity, suffered it to range as it listed, and of that free-will which is His most peculiar possession and most worthy of His majesty gave it such portion as it was capable of receiving. . . But man, possessed of a spontaneous and selfdetermined will, whose activities for the most part rest on deliberate choice, is with reason blamed for what he does wrong with intent, praised when he acts rightly of his own will. In the others, the plants and animals, no praise is due if they bear well, nor blame if they fare ill, for their movements and changes in either direction come to them from no deliberate choice or volition of their own. But the soul of man alone has received from God the faculty of voluntary movement, and in this way especially was made like to Him, and thus being liberated, as far as might be, from that hard and ruthless mistress, necessity, may justly be charged with guilt, in that it does not honor its Liberator".

Saadia Gaon

Saadia Gaon was born in Egypt and lived in Syria, Palestine from 922 and in Babylon or Iraq. He studied Jewish studies and Greek-Arabic philosophy. Influences on Gaon were: Rabbinic Judaism, Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism and Mutazilite (Katz 32; Guttmann 62). From Plato he took over proofs against sensationalism; from Aristotelianism proof for Creation and in the "Book of Beliefs and Opinions" one can see the influence of Mutalilite Islamic beliefs and on God's unity (Guttmann, 69). From Kalam Islamic beliefs Gaon took over proofs for Creation and the unity of God concept (Guttmann, 68). In the beginning of the tenth century Judaism was challenged by Islam and Karaism. Saadia's philosophy responded to this challenge. Karaism was a Jewish sect founded around 750 at Babylon by Anan ben David. They believed in asceticism in order to hasten the coming of the Messiah (Katz, 39-40).

On the Freedom of the Will it is stated by Gaon:

"It behooves me further to explain that man cannot be considered as the agent of an act unless he exercises freedom of choice in performing it, for no one can be held accountable for an act who does not possess freedom of choice and does not exercise this choice. On the other hand, the reason why, as we note, the Law did not impose any punishment upon the person who by oversight did something that was forbidden, was not that he did not exercise choice in committing the act, for such an act would have no significance that would make it subject to punishment. It was rather because he was ignorant of the motive or reason for its prohibition."

"The Book of Beliefs and Opinions" Treatise IV, chapter III.

Bahya Ibn-Paquda

He was born in Muslim Spain (1080). Influences on Bahya were: Jewish tradition (prophets, Talmud); Islamic mysticism (Arabic Neo-Platonism and Hermetic writings) (Katz, 56; Guttmann, 104). There was a strong influence on him from Islamic mysticism and asceticism. Both Mutazilite and Islamic mysticism influenced Bahya distinction between duties of the heart and duties of the limbs (Guttmann, 107). Islamic mysticism influenced Bahya regarding the view on the purpose of life (Katz, 56, 57-58). For Bahya the purpose of life is the love of God (Katz, 56-58). Says Bahya:

"This is the result of the pure love of God. Since this is so, and since the needs of the body are many and its lack of provisions for all its wants is perpetual, filling every hour and every moment, since the soul cannot escape its obligation of caring for the body in all these ways, it has no peace or rest from healing the ills of its body. It becomes too busy with the body's affairs to care for what is dear to itself, what is special to its own substance and conforms to it, what constitutes its happiness in the place of eternal rest. However, when the light of reason shines upon it and reveals to the soul the evil of the things toward which it has leaned in love, and with which it is busy in thought, when it reveals its negligence of deliverance both in this world and the next, then the soul turns away from all these and entrusts all its affairs to the Creator and the Provider, giving all its attention to seeking the way of deliverance from the great error it has committed and its shortcoming in the time of trial. Thereupon it undertakes to practice asceticism in this world with all its pleasures, to scorn the body and all its desires. Its eyes open and its sight clears and it sees its ignorance of God and His law. It starts to distinguish between true and false, and there is revealed to it the truth of its Creator and Ruler"

"The Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart", Chapter XX.

About the Free Will Bahya said:

"The reason why all the creatures are not uniform in shape and pattern is that when something always acts in the same way, it proves that the action is involuntary"

"The Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart", Chapter III.

Bahya had a different understanding about the Future Life than the Talmud (Guttmann, 108).

Judah Halevi

He was born in Muslim Spain (1075-1141) and visited Africa in 1139. He learned Hebrew, Arabic, Aristotelianism, Jewish Studies (Bible, Talmud and Medicine).

As far as the Free Will of man is concerned, Judah Halevi felt that there is a free will and that man is responsible for his thoughts and actions. God has foreknowledge of his actions but does not control or direct them (Katz, 123 and Guttmann, 129). Says Halevi:

"He orders his will-power to receive every command issued by him obediently and to carry it out without contradiction. He admonishes the will, bidding it not to obey and trust the two tempters, instinct and imagination, without taking counsel with the intellect -to obey them if intellect accords with them, otherwise to resist. The will obeys his admonition and resolves to execute it. It (the will) directs first the organs of thought and frees them from all worldly ideas which filled them before; it charges the imagination to produce, with the assistance of memory, the most splendid pictures possible, in order to approach the Divine power which it seeks . . . . The pious man then orders his memory to retain all these, and not to forget them; he warns his instinctive judgement and its tempers not to confuse the truth or to trouble it by doubts; he warns his irascibility and greed not to influence the will to lead it astray nor to subdue it to wrath and lust. After this preparation, the will-power stimulates all his organs to work with alertness, pleasure and joy. . . . This hour of Divine service constitutes the maturity and essence of time, while the other hours represent the road which leads to his goal; for in the one hour he becomes like the spiritual beings (angels) and is removed from the animal ones"

(The Kuzari Book II, 50)

Moses Maimonides

Moses was born in 1153 in Spain and died in 1204. Maimonides studied Halakha (Mishnah and Gemara); Hebrew and Arabic; Aristotelian philosophy and medicine.

Maimonides said that the soul has two faculties: appetite and rational. He felt that "all activities of man, not merely his intellectual activities should concentrate on achieving a knowledge of God. Whatever the immediate end of any activity, it should also have a further goal, connected with the knowledge of God" (Blau, 1971: 215).

Maimonides view of the Free Will is discussed by Katz (Katz, 96).

Levi ben Gershon

Levi was born in Southern France in 1288 and died in 1344. He learned science, arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, Talmudic and Liturgical studies. He also studied the philosophy of Aristotle and Averroes and Logic.

Blau summarized Gerson's view by saying "he left to the human mind complete freedom of theoretical exploration, but urged humility in putting the conclusions of reason into practice" (Blau 1971: 232).

He accepted the non-Biblical position of evolutionism that God created out of pre-existing eternal formless matter the world (Blau 1971: 223-224).

His concepts of Free Will and man can be found in Katz 105-106 and also in Guttmann 219-220. On parapsychology and the Free Will, more is said by Katz on pages 106-107.

Unfortunately, Gershon claimed that the "Bible is not a law that compels us to accept untruths, its purpose is rather to lead us to the attainment of truth, as far as that is possible" (Introduction to Sefer Milhamot Adamai).

More than Maimonides, he slipped from a literal understanding of the Bible and wanted to see everything as figurative or figures of speech. This led him to sometimes call the biblical narrative dream or fantasy.

Gershon tried to show how imprecise the Bible narratives sometimes are.

It is interesting that the development in Gershon can be seen also in the approach of one of the Seventh day Adventist professors. He wrote that the Bible contain errors and one should not be worried by it and that one should not make too much of the Bible. Many of these watered down ideas of the biblical inspiration is shared already by Gershon. Katz pointed out that Gershon is "the most ardent rationalist in the medieval Jewish tradition" (Katz, 109).

Sources:

1. Blau, J. L. The Story of Jewish Philosophy (New York: Ktav, 1971).

2. Guttmann, J. Philosophies of Judaism (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964).

3. Katz, S. T. Jewish Philosophers (Jerusalem: Keter, 1975).

4. Unisa Judaica II, Guide 5 Section B: 37-142.