Albo, Joseph

Abstract

Joseph Albo (c. 1380–1444) was a Jewish philosopher active in Christian Spain during the first half of the fifteenth century. His main opus Sefer ha-Ikkarim (Book of Principles) was completed in Soria, Castile, in 1425. Albo was active in the last phase of medieval Jewish philosophy and thus was strongly influenced by his predecessors, mostly Maimonides, his teacher Hasdai Crescas, and Simeon ben Zemah Duran. He was well acquainted with the Muslim philosophic heritage, mainly Averroes, as it was translated into Hebrew during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Being active in Christian Spain, he was apparently also acquainted with scholastic philosophy, mostly Aquinas, which influenced the formation of this thought. Facing the Catholic Church persecution of the Jews in Spain, especially since the anti-Jewish riots of 1391, and the Christian increasing pressure on Jews to convert, Albo actively participated in the Jewish anti-Christian polemics of his period. Although Albo is not considered an original thinker, and much of his book consists of summaries of the ideas of previous scholars, still he significantly contributed to the history of Jewish philosophy in two areas: the theory of principles and the theory of law. He condensed Maimonides’ 13 principles of faith to the fundamental three: the existence of God, the divine origin of the Torah, and reward and punishment. In his legal theory, he was the first to introduce the scholastic notion of natural law to Jewish philosophy, thereby revolutionizing it.