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6 2 I n t e r p r e t a t i o n Volume 42 / Issue 1 Strauss concludes this portion of his response to the argument for the superiority of actions with the assertion that “we are from the outset entitled to expect that the sequence of topics in the Guide would imitate the way of the prophets, which is ascent, followed by descent”; i.e., it would follow the way of the philosopher of Plato’s Republic, who returns to the cave of the city after having first left it, as Strauss indicates clearly by referring to the Republic in a footnote to Maimonides’s own views about “ascent to the highest knowledge” and “descent to the ‘people of the earth’” (90n155). Thus, although Strauss argues exoterically that the Guide is not a philosophic book, esoterically he implies that the Guide is a work, or rather a speech or “confidential communication” (82), of philosophy par excellence. Taken together, these two characterizations allow us to see the Guide as a work or perhaps the work of political philosophy, such that “Maimonides is not only the central figure in Jewish thought, but the central figure of all human thought,” inasmuch as the themes dealt with by political philosophy are the most exalted for the human mind. 23 Strauss’s esoteric thesis is addressed to the philosophical few, i.e., to those who are both dangerous for the law and in danger from the law; his exoteric thesis is designed to respond to the problem that “both the history of Judaism and the history of medieval philosophy remain deplorably incomplete, as long as the secret teaching of Maimonides has not been brought to light” (56). Ultimately, Strauss did not in fact bring that secret teaching to light, although he has been successful in redressing the deplorable states of affairs he lamented. And for the puppies of the race of the perfect, especially, although he does not illuminate, he does point out “well-hidden and spacious caves” (78), which shine with a light all their own. IV Earlier, it was noted that Strauss characterizes the Guide as “enlightened kalam,” which, to the extent that it defends a given law, is not the province of the philosopher as such. That the theme of enlightened kalam is of great importance for Strauss’s essay despite being mentioned explicitly only briefly can be seen by the fact that there are more references in the essay to Guide 1.71—where Maimonides attacks the practitioners of vulgar kalam, states 23 Fradkin, “A Word Fitly Spoken,” 56.
On “The Literary Character of the Guide for the Perplexed”: Aporia and Euporia 6 3 that he shares their intention, and promises his own type of kalam—than to any other chapter of the Guide, except for the introduction to book 1. 24 We may well wonder what the relation is between enlightened kalam, on one hand, and the exoteric defense of the law by political philosophers more broadly, on the other. For Strauss, enlightened kalam, unlike the ordinary or vulgar kind, “insists on the necessity of starting from evident presuppositions, which are in accordance with the nature of things…[not] from arbitrary presuppositions, which are chosen not because they are true but because they make it easy to prove the beliefs taught by the law” (40). Strauss draws this characterization from Maimonides, who summarizes the difference between his kalam and vulgar kalam as follows: “[Practitioners of vulgar kalam] did not conform in their premises to the appearance of that which exists, but considered how being ought to be in order that it should furnish a proof for the correctness of a particular opinion, or at least should not refute it.” 25 By contrast, Maimonides asserts that “that which exists does not conform to the various opinions, but rather the correct opinions conform to that which exists.” He thus opposes the position that “no consideration is due to how that which exists is, for it is merely a custom…and from the point of view of the intellect…could well be different,” and that ultimately “nothing has a nature in any respect.” 26 In the Enumeration of the Sciences, to which Strauss refers in this context as crucial for understanding the Guide (40n9), 27 Alfarabi defines kalam as “a disposition by which a human being is able to defend the specific opinions and actions that the founder of the religion declares and to refute by arguments whatever opposes it.” 28 He distinguishes five ways of doing so. The first involves “saying that the opinions of religions and all that is posited in them are not such as to be examined by opinions, deliberation, or human intellects.” According to this approach, “religions ought to provide what our intellects are not able to perceive…but also what our intellects object to.” This way rests on the premise that divine intellect and human intellect have no 24 The three most cited chapters are as follows: 43 references to the introduction to book 1, 21 references to 1.71, and 14 references to the introduction to book 3. 25 Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 1:178. 26 Ibid., 179, 182. 27 In this same footnote, Strauss also refers to Plato’s Laws and to Guide 1.71. 28 Alfarabi, “The Enumeration of the Sciences,” trans. Charles E. Butterworth, in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Joshua Parens and Joseph C. Macfarland (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 21.
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Fall 2015

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