Philosophy in the Spanish Kingdoms in the Time of Santob

Abstract

After philosophers such as Seneca, San Isidore of Seville, and Averroes a Lull (R. Lulius), in Santob’s times lived an Arabic philosopher in Seville, Ibn Jaldun. There was wide and open sharing of knowledge after the establishment of the famous Toledo Translation School (thirteenth and fourteenth century). Afterwards, the Muslim philosophers introduced Jewish philosophy, with some of the most important authors of the world’s Jewish philosophy, over many centuries: Selomo Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), Bahya Ibn Paquda (eleventh century), Yehuda Ha-Levi (eleventh to twelfth century), and Moses Sem Tob of Leon (fourteenth century), with his philosophy and the starting point for many cabalistic ways of thinking with his Zohar, which was very close to St Francis of Assisi’s thoughts. The most famous was the very influential Maimonides (eleventh century): his thought, along with Neoplatonism and features of Aristotle, were involved in disputes among different Jewish communities. Christian philosophy used to be confined to the monasteries, in the Latin language, with its own way of thinking and nowadays is scarcely known.