Old 07-07-2006, 08:47 AM
  # 26 (permalink)  
paulmh
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With respect

Strictly speaking the Greeks referred to the Jews as a "nation of philosophers", so it's not fair to say that Jewish thinking was inconsequential to Aristotle, although the term was only applied after Aristotle's death. It's certainly the case that the Greeks were familiar with the Jews long before - many philosophers, traders and adventurers from the Mediteranean travelled from as far as Southern Britain, North Africa all the way to India and possibly China. The ancient world was a good deal less compartmentalised than people seem to imagine. That said the God of the Jews was one system of religious belief among many and there is no particular evidence that it really excercised the Greek thinkers. They were much more interested in social and political philosophy, and metaphysics wasn't really a field they concerned themselves with. I think they thought it was vulgar.
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