Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe

by David B. Ruderman

This book is the first to examine closely the interaction between Jewish culture, medicine, and science from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth centuries, Europe`s age of "scientific revolution." Ruderman argues that during this era Jewish culture and society became increasingly aware of medical and scientific advances, and that a new Jewish scientific discourse evolved that had significant repercussions for Jewish religious concerns.

Genres: Jewish

404 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very scholarly set of essays that focuses on Jewish attitudes towards science in 16th-18th century Europe- that is, between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment. By and large, Jewish thinkers valued science, but (as they do today) drew "boundaries between the domains of scientific activity and religious faith so that the two could live peacefully and harmoniously with each other." Jewish scholars, like Christian ones, tended to emphasize the limits of what was scientifically knowable, and to use religious tradition to understand what was beyond those limits. Because science, unlike philosophy, could easily be sealed off from religion, scientific inquiry was less controversial than secular philosophy.

Unlike in more recent centuries, Jews were not major participants in science, primarily because the Church was affluent enough to support universities and monasteries where men could focus on the life of the mind, while Jews were pretty much on their own. Jews were often not admitted to universities (except a few medical schools) - and even when they were, they were not subsidized by Church or State.

[Tamar Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This dense study of Jewish responses to scientific discovery in early modern Europe, focusing on the seventeenth century, is made up of detailed examinations of sets of thinkers. Written in the first half of Ruderman's career, it hews more closely to scholarly debate, and is more technical, than his later studies, especially the synthetic ones. The cast of characters here is colorful, not least because it shines a light on lesser-known figures, some of which I was surprised to have encountered only dimly or not at all prior to reading the book. Though not a narrative history of Jewish involvement in scientific endeavor in the early modern period, the reader comes away with detailed, fascinating knowledge of a rich array of Jewish views on the emerging modern science.

[Michel Van Goethem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe
by David B. Ruderman