‘Maimonides has an account of a lute-player who, required to perform upon some stated occasion, found that he had entirely forgot not only the piece but the whole art of playing, fingering, everything,’ wrote Stephen. ‘I have sometimes had a dread of the same thing happening to me; a not irrational dread, since I once experienced a deprivation of a similar nature: coming back to Aghamore when I was a boy, coming back after an eight years’ absence, I went to see Bridie Coolan, and she spoke to me in Irish. Her voice was intimately familiar (none more, my own wet-nurse); so were the intonations
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Maimonides: revered Jewish Torah scholar, influence on Aquinas, theologian, philosopher. Spanish Jew who wrote in Arabic to Hebrew. Middle Age pre-eminent astronomer and physician to the Sultan. A spectacularly interesting person.
Wrote guide for the perplexed (reconciled Aristotle with Pentateuch)
Logic / Rational Man - interested in moral character development. Everyone has an innate disposition (KNOW THYSELF)
People have an innate character (and an environmental character of course) that they must reconcile for the world. He invites people to challenge their negative traits to benefit the world. A beautiful philosopher. Hopeful
