SOURCE: Rudavsky, T. M. “Creation, Time, and Infinity in Gersonides.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 26, no. 1 (January 1988): 25-44.

In the following essay, Rudavsky explains Gersonides's approach to problems involving infinite divisibility and the continuum.

1. Introduction

In this paper I should like to examine Gersonides' theory of time and the infinite as developed against the backdrop of his views on creation. Two questions are of paramount importance: the creation of the universe, and the notion of the continuum. Before proceeding to an examination of these two issues, let me first say something about their importance in Gersonides' work.

Gersonides was a Jewish philosopher writing in fourteenth-century France (Avignon, 1288-1344). He spent several years in the papal court in Avignon, and may at that time have come into contact with the views of Ockham and other fourteenth-century scholastics.¹ His major work Milhamot Hashem is a sustained examination of the...