Lecture
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Tuesday 28.10.2025
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
The Rise of Jewish Philosophy: The Rational Quest of God
Tuesday 28.10.2025
How to watch
This lecture starts on 28 October at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary
Zvi dives into his lecture on the development of Jewish philosophy, beginning with the integration of Greek philosophy and Islamic theology in the works of Avicenna (c. 980-1037) and Ibn Rushd (1126-1198). Then follows the Jewish response, focusing on Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882-942) and Maimonides (1138-1204). We round out the lecture with physician-philosopher Yehuda Halevi (1079-1141) and his most famous book, Kuzari.
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite teaches Chinese History, Middle Eastern and Islamic history, and sometimes Jewish history, at New York University. He is author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China (Harvard, 2005); The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History (Oxford, 2009); co-editor of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Culture, and Politics (Brandeis, 2013); The Scaffolding of Sovereignty: Global and Aesthetic Perspectives on the History of a Concept (Columbia University Press, 2017); and Time and Language: New Sinology and Chinese History (Hawaii University Press, 2023).