Adventures in Philosophy JEWISH PHILOSOPHY Select a Category... Ancient Philosophy Medieval Philosophy Modern Philosophy Recent Philosophy American Philosophy Islamic Philosophy Jewish Philosophy Political Philosophy Eastern Philosophy Introduction & Directory Jewish Philosophy Index
Academy Resources Glossary of Philosophical Terms Timeline of Philosophy A Timeline of American Philosophy Diagram: Development of Philosophic Thought Diagram: Divisions of Philosophy The Philosophy Resource Center The Religion Resource Center Books about Jewish Philosophy in The Radical Academy Bookstore Books about Philosophy in The Radical Academy Bookstore Books about Religion in The Radical Academy Bookstore Click Here for New & Used College Textbooks at Discount Prices Click Here for College Education Information & Study Resources Shop Amazon Stores in the Radical Academy Bookstore Magazine Outlet Music Store Classical Music Store Video Store DVD Store Computer Store Camera & Photo Store Computer/Video Games Software Store Musical Instruments Outlet Store Cellular Phones Toys & Games Tools & Hardware Automotive Store Outdoor Living Consumer Electronics Home & Garden Kitchen & Housewares Baby Superstore Apparel & Accessories Gourmet Food Grocery Store Sporting Goods Jewelry & Watches Health & Personal Care Beauty Store		Knowledge, Love and Desire by Judah Abravanel   Knowledge must precede all love; for we could not love anything we had not first known to be good. Nor can we love anything before we conceive of it as an actuality. Our mind is a mirror and model, or to be more specific, an image of real things. Therefore we can love nothing, until we can perceive its existence in reality. It cannot be denied that knowledge precedes desire. Knowledge is not only concerned with what is, but also that which is not. For our mind judges things as it perceives them to be; it judges things which are not, in the same fashion. Thus I would say that love presupposes a knowledge of things which are, and a desire of those things which are not which we lack. Knowledge without love is of those things which are not beautiful, and therefore not desirable; or of bad and ugly things that are hated; or of things which are neither desired nor hated. All other knowledge of good and beautiful things either has love or desire as its end. Every degree of being in the universe is subordinate to another, and graded from the lowest to the highest. In man himself, the lesser faculties are subordinate to the greater; to wit: those of the vegetable soul to those of the sensitive; those of the sensitive to those of the intellectual. The intellectual is the finest and highest faculty, not only in Man, but in all of the lower world. Even in the intellectual, activities are graded from the lowest to the highest in order of intelligible objects. The highest and final intelligible object is the highest being, and the ultimate end to which all things are ordered. The acme and objective of intellectual activity is that celestial, angelic intellect, to which all others are subordinate. In the same way...the various loves in the created universe are subordinate, from the lowest to the highest, up to that final and supreme love, that of the universe for its creator. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, by Daniel H. Frank Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book... Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Magazine... Academy Showcase Specials     Introduction & Directory Jewish Philosophy Index
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