Unraveling Crescas: how divine attributes, unity, and universals fit together
This edition surveys Crescas’s attempt to defend a theory of divine attributes within the framework of absolute simplicity. It situates Crescas in the medieval debate alongside thinkers like Maimonides, Avicenna, Averroes, and Gersonides, showing how he treats the relation between universal ideas and individual essences. The discussion clarifies how positive attributes can be held to exist in the divine essence and how predicates used of God relate to ordinary meanings.
- Learn Crescas’s approach to essential universals and why they are seen as real conditions of the divine essence
- See how the author distinguishes “positive attribute” in two senses: existence as a quality and the sense of predicates
- Explore how this view compares with other medieval positions on unity, existence, and the nature of predicates
- Understand how the work frames arguments about emanation, universals, and the problem of divine simplicity
Ideal for readers of Jewish philosophical thought, medieval philosophy, and the history of theology seeking a clear, grounded view of Crescas’s theory and its debate partners.