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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Portrait of Maimonides
Maimonides

1138 CE – 1204 CE

MedievalScholastic

Born Cordoba

The great Jewish philosopher who tried to reconcile Aristotle with the Torah, and faith with a thinking mind.

Portrait of Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas

1225 CE – 1274 CE

MedievalScholastic

He reconciled Aristotle with Christianity and wrote the most systematic theology ever attempted. Then he stopped, saying all he had written was straw.

Connection

Maimonides influence Thomas Aquinas — Aquinas cites Rabbi Moses often; Maimonides showed the Latin world how Aristotle and scripture might be reconciled.

Shared Ideas

Faith & Reason

Ideas

Faith & ReasonReason
Faith & ReasonNatural LawBeing

Words

“Teach thy tongue to say I do not know, and thou shalt progress.”

— Maimonides

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

— Thomas Aquinas

Key Moments

1138 CE

Born in Cordoba

c. 1160 CE

Flight from Cordoba

c. 1180 CE

The Mishneh Torah

c. 1190 CE

The Guide for the Perplexed

1245 CE

Studies in Paris and Cologne

1265 CE

Writes the Summa Theologica

December 1273 CE

The Mystical Experience

1274 CE

Dies on the Road

Works

The Guide for the Perplexed

Summa Theologica

Atlas of Thinkers

A story-first philosophy atlas. Explore history's greatest thinkers through place, time, movement, and ideas.

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Volume I · Ancient Greece · 624-262 BCE