This book brings together in a single volume a broad range of works by Maimonides dealing with ethics. While not pretending to be exhaustive, it is both representative and comprehensive. There are complete translations of his two main ethical works, Laws Concerning Character Traits and Eight Chapters. These are supplemented by selections that throw light upon both the practical application and the theoretical foundations of his teachings. The sequence of the selections is from the most concrete elucidation of ethics in the Law Code to the theoretical principles in the Guide of the Perplexed and the Logic. The final section of the book encompasses his view of the messianic era.
All the works included (with the exception of the Guide) have been newly translated with a view to precision and readability. Almost all the translations of these works already available in English are inadequate because they either are not precise enough or are not based upon the best possible texts. In some instances, new texts have become available since the earlier translations were made. The long letter to Joseph has been translated into English for the first time.
Our procedure in the case of predominantly Arabic works that contain Hebrew expressions is to set apart the latter with italics. Except for the letter to Joseph, the translators are responsible for the division into paragraphs and for the punctuation in the Arabic selections.
We are grateful for the generous assistance given in various ways by a number of people: Rabbi Hillel Gamoran, Erica Aronson, Norman Golb, Ralph Lerner, Muhsin Mahdi, and Rabbi David Shapiro. We have reaped the benefit of the guidance of Leo Strauss, may his memory be a blessing, in his pioneering work in recovering Maimonides’ teachings. We are much indebted to Erica Aronson for her perceptive suggestions on how to improve the English style of some of the translations. We also wish to acknowledge our gratitude to Shlomo Pines and the University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint selections from the Guide of the Perplexed. Finally, our thanks are due to Dawn Ross for her devoted labors in typing the manuscript, as well as to M. Tivol of the University of Maryland and the secretarial staff of the Philosophy Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for their typing assistance.