Page:Eight chapters of Maimonides on ethics.djvu/27

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Introduction
7

ethics in his philosophical system, and what ethics meant to him. The name and the date of the original composition of the Peraḳim, as well as that of its translation by Ibn Tibbon, will be discussed. The relation of the Peraḳim to Maimonides’ other works will be taken up, followed by a characterization and summary of their contents. A brief account of the style and character of Ibn Tibbon’s translations in general, and as portrayed in the Peraḳim, will also be given. There is also included a list of manuscripts, editions, commentaries, and translations.


II

A. Maimonides’ Ethical Writings—Definition of Ethics

The works in which Maimonides presents his ethical teachings are as follows:—

  1. Commentary on the Mishnah[1] (פירוש המשנה), in many places, but especially in:
    1. General Introduction to the Mishnah Commentary (פתיחת פירוש המשנה)[2];
    2. Introduction to Sanhedrin, Chapter X (פרק חלק)[3];
    3. Introduction to Abot (פתיחת אבות or שמונה פרקים)[4];
    4. Commentary on Abot.[5]
  2. Book of Commandments (ספר המצות),[6] in various places.
  1. See Catal. Bodl., 1853; Arab. Lit., p. 200 ff., and Grätz, VI³, p. 273 ff.
  2. Generally, but incorrectly, named הקדמה לסדר זרעים, as in Pococke, Porta Mosis, which contains the Arabic text with Latin translation.
  3. Arabic with Latin translation in Porta Mosis. Arabic with Hebrew translation, J. Holzer, Zur Geschichte der Dogmenlehre in der jüd. Religionsphilosophie des Mittelalters. Mose Maimuni’s Einleitung zu Chelek (Berlin, 1901); English translation by J. Abelson, JQR, vol. XXIX, p. 28 ff. The Arabic text with notes has been recently edited by I. Friedlaender in Selections from the Arabic Writings of Maimonides, pp. 1–39.
  4. See Catal. Bodl., 1890–91.
  5. Arab. Lit., p. 273, n. 1. Arabic text by Baneth, Berlin, 1905; Ger. translation in Rawicz, Commentar des M. zu den Sprüchen der Väter (1910).
  6. Written by M. to serve as an introduction to the Mishneh Torah; it contains the enumeration and classification of the 613 precepts of the Law. See Grätz, VI³, p. 291. For a part of the Arabic text with the Hebrew translation of Shelomoh ben Joseph ibn Ayyub, and German translation with notes, see M. Peritz, Das Buch der