Lecture

Venue
School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon

Date
2–4 July 2025

Panel: Prime Matter in Medieval and Early Modern Hebrew Scientific Literature

Organisers: Hanna Gentili, Yoav Meyrav, Suf Amichay

Panel Abstract
The concept of Prime Matter was at the centre of some of the most contested philosophical and metaphysical discussions in the medieval tradition. Although contemporary opinions differ regarding Aristotle’s own commitment to Prime Matter, medieval thinkers saw it as integral to Aristotelian natural philosophy. Hebrew sources represent an important link in the chain of transmission that shaped the view of Prime Matter in medieval and early modern thought and played an important role by both inheriting and reverberating Arabic debates and developing an original tradition specific to the Jewish context. It also demonstrates how a philosophical notion can stray so far away from the context in which it was originally developed and still be of philosophical value.
Our panel addresses the multilayered contribution of Hebrew sources to the debates on Prime Matter as concerns the legacy of the Arabic tradition in the context of medieval and early modern Jewish philosophy as well as the original elements that the Jewish tradition added to it. Based mainly on underresearched manuscript sources that have never been printed, the three talks will provide new material for the discussion of the importance of Prime Matter in issues of cosmogony, natural philosophy and theory of science.
The talks will address respectively a) new material preserved in the Hebrew manuscript tradition that sheds light on the debates around Prime Matter in the Arabic world; b) the long-term influence of the Arabic debates in the Hebrew reception of Aristotelian natural philosophy; and c) new ways in which the notion of Prime Matter was integrated into the rabbinic and mystical tradition in the Jewish medieval and early modern context.

Talk 1: Hanna Gentili
Prime Matter in Averroes’ Circle: New Sources in Hebrew Manuscripts

This paper examines the discussion of Prime Matter in two medieval treatises originally written in Arabic by abū Jaʿfar ibn Sabāq and abū al-Qāsim ibn Idrīs, both likely associated with the intellectual circle of Averroes. Preserved only through an anonymous Hebrew translation, these treatises circulated with Averroes’ Questions in Physics, a collection which comprises of treatises on physics and metaphysics and is transmitted with the commentary by the 14th-century Jewish Aristotelian philosopher Moses Narboni. By analyzing these treatises, this paper sheds light on lesser-known contributors to Arabic philosophy and deepens our understanding of the debates around Prime Matter in the circle of Averroes.
Furthermore, the investigation into the multiple layers of the Hebrew transmission of these treatises and their larger impact on Moses Narboni’s thought will reveal their wider impact on medieval Jewish philosophy.

Talk 2: Yoav Meyrav
Medieval Hebrew Philosophers and the Scientific Status of Prime Matter

Medieval Hebrew authors encountered the question of the scientific status of Prime Matter—specifically, which science proves its existence and in which science it is discussed once its existence is proven—mainly in the context of Averroes’s commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics. This question was raised in connection with Averroes’s critical discussion of Avicenna’s division of labor between physics and metaphysics and also tied to the scientific status of Prime Matter’s counterpart, the First Mover (or the First Form). The proposed presentation will examine Hebrew philosophers’ positions on this question through two medieval genres: [1] supercommentaries on Averroes’s commentaries on Aristotle, whose authors—due to the limitations of this genre—were bound to follow Averroes’s line of discussion and decisions on where and in what contexts to address this question; and [2] encyclopedias, whose authors adopted a synthetic approach to their various sources and—due to the limitations of this genre—had to introduce and follow a clear distinction between sciences, making their positioning and analysis of Prime Matter indicative of their approach.

Talk 3: Suf Amichay (University of Cambridge)
The Evolving Role of Prime Matter (Hyle) in the Esoteric Jewish Intellectual Tradition

I examine the evolving importance of Prime Matter (hyle) in the Jewish intellectual tradition, specifically within a tradition of esoteric Jewish science. For background, I give a short overview of the reception of the Aristotelian theory of matter in the Jewish tradition in late antiquity, and its integration into Jewish sciences in the Middle Ages. The main part of the talk then focuses on a shift in the role Prime Matter played in esoteric traditions of science. Referring to both known texts and specific findings from manuscripts and marginalia, I show how in the Middle Ages, a commitment to an Aristotelian concept was taken in the esoteric tradition to be a commitment to the eternity of the world. I then show how following the scientific revolution, the Aristotelian concept of matter was ironically canonised as the official concept of matter by Rabbinic Jews.

Further information
Link to conference webpage