Philosopher
Abner of Burgos
c. 1260 – 1347
Also known as Alfonso de Valladolid
Jewish Aristotelian who, around sixty, became a Neoplatonic Christian, and whose polemics built an original critique of Judaism and of Aristotelian science, later felt through Crescas.
Abner was born around 1260, probably in Burgos, one of the major Jewish communities of Castile. For the first part of his life he was an Aristotelian Jewish philosopher; after years of hesitation he converted to Christianity, at around sixty according to one source, and took the name Alfonso de Valladolid. He died in 1347.
Most of his works are polemics meant to persuade his former fellow Jews to convert. Jewish writers answered them in at least five works, among them his former pupil Isaac Polqar. Christian theologians used his quotations from Jewish sources rather than his arguments, but his philosophical influence on Jewish thought was real, and through Hasdai Crescas some of his views reached Western philosophy more widely.
Key ideas
- The will is like wax
- The will’s power to choose between alternatives is timeless, but each act of willing in time is fixed by its causes, just as wax can take any shape while the shape it actually takes depends on what presses on it.
- Against Aristotelian science
- Abner was among the first philosophical critics of Aristotle’s science. Against the Aristotelians he denied that a body must carry accidents such as magnitude and weight, holding that a body could exist without them.
- A rare change of mind
- Few medieval philosophers changed both philosophy and religion. Abner moved from Jewish Aristotelianism to a radical Christian Neoplatonism, and argued that his new faith surpassed both traditional and philosophical Judaism.
- Tradition
- Jewish
- Region
- Burgos and Valladolid
- Schools
- Neoplatonism
- Period
- Provence and Spain
- Themes
- Free will and fate
Influences
Influenced by
Abner of Burgosc. 1260 – 1347
Influenced
Influenced by
Abner of Burgosc. 1260 – 1347
Influenced
Where these links come from
- Abner of Burgos argued against Aristotle. Source: Shalom Sadik, Abner of Burgos, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Abner of Burgos drew on Avicenna. Source: Shalom Sadik, Abner of Burgos, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Abner of Burgos argued against Maimonides. Source: Shalom Sadik, Abner of Burgos, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Isaac Polqar studied with and argued against Abner of Burgos. Source: Racheli Haliva, Isaac Polqar, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Hasdai Crescas drew on Abner of Burgos. Source: Shalom Sadik, Abner of Burgos, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Teacher of Righteousness (Mostrador de Justicia)
- Offering of Zeal (Ofrenda de Zelos)
Sources
- Shalom Sadik, Abner of Burgos, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy