The phenomenon of prophecy is a significant topic with a relevant uniqueness in medieval Jewish thought. In Jewish tradition, prophecy was a form of intermediation between the divine and human. Our intention in this paper is to explore and understand this problem like a theological idea and like an intellectual phenomenon of consciousness with obvious epistemological implications. We shall do taking into account the philosophical influences of this conception, fundamentally Islamic thinkers, and focusing our search in the most significant perspectives (...) about the topic, namely Yehudah Ha-Levi, Abraham ibn Daud and Moses Maimonides. (shrink)

Elucidating a metaphysics of medicine is vital for framing a coherent medical ethics. In this paper, I examine the historical case of Avicenna, the eleventh century physician-philosopher. Avicenna radicalizes the dissective power of reason using a logicized Aristotelian metaphysics to clarify concepts at the metaphysical level, which I call his anatomy of being. One of the practical consequences of Avicenna’s metaphysics is a dehumanizing eschatology of death. I outline the main elements of Avicenna’s thought that constitute his anatomy of being. (...) Through an examination of his logic, metaphysics, and psychology, I show how Avicenna develops a dissective logic. I conclude that one’s epistemology, as a method of knowing, entails a metaphysics, and, in turn, results in an ethical stance to the object of knowledge. For Avicenna, mental dissective logic applied to humans results in dehumanization, thereby destroying the humanistic impulse of medicine. (shrink)