Hasdai Crescas on Divine Omniscience and Human Choice: Comparative Metaphysics

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the parallels between the ideas of the Western scholastics and Jewish philosophers of the XIV–XV centuries. Hasdai Crescas was one of the famous Jewish philosophers. Until the 60s of the XX century researchers considered the philosophy of Judaism in the framework of the Arab-Muslim philosophical tradition. However, with the release of the significant Sh. Pines’ paper this trend has changed. Indeed, it would be much more methodologically more accurate to consider the philosophical ideas of Jewish thinkers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries also in the light of the interaction of the latter with European scholastic thought. The key issues raised in the main Crescas’ work, The Light of the Lord, are close to the questions formulated and decided by the scholastics. The ideas of Creskas on the divine knowledge of future events, freedom of human will, reward and punishment for actions are parallels with the ideas of different representatives of scholastic philosophy.