Unapproved Cognitive Methodologies and the Mistakes They Generate in Halevi's KUZARI

• In Event: Judah Halevi: His Oeuvre and its Reception

Abstract

One of Judah Halevi’s complaints against Aristotelian philosophy is its over reliance upon a priori personal ratiocination rather than reliable tradition based upon experience. Philosophers, however, were not the only people to make that mistake. Throughout the KUZARI, reference is made to various groups who are guilty of similar methodological errors. The most prominent of these is the Karaites, whose personal efforts (IDJTIHAD) to harness logical syllogistic thinking (QIYAS) in the place of accepting rabbinic tradition led them into legal and exegetical blunders. Although the Aristotelians and the Karaites were major targets of the KUZARI, as mentioned in the prologue to the book, Judah Halevi often cites other mistaken personswith similar methodologies which lead them into error: dualists, astrologers, worshippers of the Golden Calf, materialists (DAHRIYYA), writers of amulets, those who attempt to draw upon spiritual substances, recluses on the mountains, child burners, the worshippers of the “work of heaven” (MELEKHET HA-SHAMAYYIM), and the Kings of the Kuzars before his conversion to Judaism. The talk will discuss how Judah Halevi understands the mistakes made by these groups because of their unapproved cognitive methodologies.

author

• Daniel J. Lasker, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev