GERSONIDES, or Ben Gerson, Levi, a distinguished Jewish philosopher and commentator, was born at Bagnolo in Languedoc, towards the close of the 13th century, probably in 1288. As in the case of the other Jewish writers on philosophy during the Middle Ages, extremely little is known of his life. His family had been distinguished for piety and exegetical skill, but though he was known in the Jewish community by commentaries on certain books of the Bible, he never seems to have accepted any Rabbinical post. Possibly the freedom of his opinions, which drew on him the suspicion of infidelity, may have put obstacles in the way of his preferment. He is known to have been at Avignon and Orange during his life, and is believed to have died at Perpignan in 1370. Part of his writings consist of commentaries on the portions of Aristotle then known, or rather of commentaries on the commentaries of Averroes. Some of these are printed in the early Latin editions of Aristotle’s works. His most important treatise, that by which he has a place in the history of philosophy, is entitled Milhamoth Adonai (The Wars of God), and is said to have occupied twelve years in composition. A portion of it, containing an elaborate survey of astronomy as known to the Arabs, was translated into Latin in 1342 at the request of Clement VI. The Milhamoth is throughout modelled after the plan of the great work of Jewish philosophy, the More Nebuchîm of Moses Maimonides, and may be regarded as an elaborate criticism from the more philosophical point of view (mainly Averroistic) of orthodoxy as presented in that work. The six books pass in review (1) the doctrine of the soul, in which Gersonides defends the theory of impersonal reason as mediating between God and man, and explains the formation of the ...