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- Title
The Role of the Medium and the Natural Place in the Explanation of the Natural Motion in Rabbi Moses ben Yehuda's Thought.
- Authors
Esienmann, Esti
- Abstract
Rabbi Moses ben Yehuda (Rambi) proposed a unique explanation of natural motion. The explanation of movement in general in Aristotelian physics left a few unsolved problems regarding natural motion. These problems were discussed in the Judeo-Arabic tradition, and especially later on, in the 13th and 14th centuries, in the Christian Scholastic tradition. Natural motion was one of the most debated issues, since it was connected with two principles that were rejected by Aristotle: the possibility of a void and the possibility that objects could move themselves. According to the main Judeo-Arabic Aristotelian tradition an object cannot move by itself. Therefore the motive force of a moving object must be external and must act by touch. Concomitantly, in natural motion the main and almost only motive force propelling the moving object is the medium through which it falls. For that reason, the possibility of a void was rejected, since in a void a movement would not be possible. In contrast to this tradition, Rabbi Moses ben Yehuda claims, that the medium is not the only cause of the natural motion. He asserts that the object has an inherent principle of self- generated motion. Moreover, in contrast to Aristotelian physics, which rejects the concept of action upon a body at a distance, Rabbi Moses ben Yehuda claims that during natural motion the natural place attracts the object, and is one of the causes of its motion.
- Subjects
BEN Yehuda, Moses; MEDIUMS; RABBIS; ARISTOTELIANISM (Philosophy); JUDEO-Arabic literature; LITURGICAL objects in Judaism; MINHAGIM
- Publication
Tarbiz, 2009, Vol 78, Issue 3, p399
- ISSN
0334-3650
- Publication type
Article