Book: Johannes Reuchlin Kabbalah Pythagorean Philosophy And Modern Scholarship by Moshe Idel
Various philosophies left their imprint on the different forms of Kabbalah. The impact of Neoplatonism and Neoaristotelianism is best known, though some traces of the impact of Stoicism and Atomism can also be discern in the vast Kabbalistic literature. Pythagorean philosophy is perhaps the third in its importance, from the point of view of the themes it impacted on Kabbalah. Though there are some examples of mentioning Pythagoras in medieval Jewish literature, this is a rare phenomenon. Iamblichus wrote his book as an introduction to a large multivoluminous treatise on Pythagoreanism, which he apparently never finished in its entirety. As we know such a Pythagorean reform never took place in a pure manner because Neoplatonism, though inspired from time to time by Pythagorean themes, succeeded and Iamblichus was in fact one of those who had a share in this success. However, his attempt to bring back Pythagoras's philosophy is of a certain importance for our subsequent discussions. This may be also the case with the other figure that drew from Neo-Pythagorean sources, and even save some pieces of Iamblichus's book on Pythagoreanism from oblivion, the Byzantine 11th century scholar Michael Psellus. We may summarize the different surges of Pythagoreanism in antiquity and Middle Ages, as strongly connected to an earlier floruit of some forms of Platonism. This is also the case in the Renaissance. After Ficino's introduction of the various forms of Platonism and Neoplatonism, the Pythagorean elements that were components of these literatures, gelled as a theory that contends to stand for itself, as Reuchlin would assume.Free eBooks (Can Be Downloaded):
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Moshe Idel - Johannes Reuchlin Kabbalah Pythagorean Philosophy And Modern Scholarship