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Index
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Translator’s Note
Maimon’s Autobiography: A Guide for the Perplexed
Original Editor’s Preface, by Karl Philipp Moritz
Introduction
Chapter 1: My Grandfather’s Household
Chapter 2: Earliest Childhood Memories
Chapter 3: Private Education and Independent Study
Chapter 4: Jewish Schools. The Joy of Being Delivered from Them Results in a Stiff Foot
Chapter 5: My Family Is Driven into Poverty, and an Old Servant’s Great Loyalty Costs Him a Christian Burial
Chapter 6: New Residence, New Misery. The Talmudist
Chapter 7: Happiness Turns Out to Be Short-Lived
Chapter 8: The Student Knows More Than the Teacher. A Theft à la Rousseau Is Discovered. The Pious Man Wears What the Godless Man Procures
Chapter 9: Love Affairs. Marriage Proposals. The Song of Solomon Can Be Used as a Matchmaking Device. Smallpox
Chapter 10: People Fight over Me. I Suddenly Go from Having No Wives to Having Two. In the End, I Wind Up Being Kidnapped
Chapter 11: Marrying as an Eleven Year Old Makes Me into My Wife’s Slave and Results in Beatings at the Hands of My Mother-in-Law. A Spirit of Flesh and Blood
Chapter 12: Marital Secrets. Prince R., or the Things One Isn’t Allowed to Do in Poland
Chapter 13: Striving for Intellectual Growth amidst the Eternal Struggle against All Kinds of Misery
Chapter 14: I Study the Kabbalah, and Finally Become a Doctor
Chapter 15: Brief Account of the Jewish Religion, from Its Origins to the Present
Chapter 16: Jewish Piety and Exercises in Penance
Chapter 17: Friendship and Rapture
Chapter 18: Life as a Tutor
Chapter 19: Another Secret Society and Therefore a Long Chapter
Chapter 20: Continuation of the Story, as well as Some Thoughts on Religious Mysteries
Chapter 21: Trips to Königsberg, Stettin, and Berlin, to Further My Understanding of Humanity
Chapter 22: My Misery Reaches Its Nadir. Rescue
Preface to the Second Book
Introduction: Expansion of My Knowledge and Development of My Character. On Both of Which the Writings of the Famous Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon Had the Greatest Influence. Precise Account of These Writings
Chapter 1: More Newochim: Its Plan, Goal, and Method. Theologica Politica
Chapter 2: Continuation. Interpretation of Expressions with Multiple Meanings. Language in the Hands of Theologians, like Clay in the Hands of the Potters. Anti-Rousseauean Refutation of an Objection. Cautionary Rule for Aspiring Metaphysicians: One Must First Learn to Swim before Plunging into the Great Oceans of the World
Chapter 3: Continuation. The Crow Is Robbed of the Feathers Stolen from Other Birds, or the Denial of God’s Positive Characteristics
Chapter 4: Continuation. Explanation of the Manifold Names of God as Names for His Actions. Destiny of Metaphysics. It Becomes the Slave of Theology. Its Degeneration into Dialectics
Chapter 5: Continuation. The Concept of Angels. Some Remain at Their Stations as Ambassadors, Others Have Been Ordered Back. Genesis and Influence of the Uniform Beings. Aristotelians’ Reasons for the Eternity of the World
Chapter 6: Continuation. Counter-Reasons. A Psychological Explanation of Prophesy That Doesn’t Undermine the Dignity of Prophesy
Chapter 7: Continuation. Relation of All Natural Events to God. A Very Comfortable and Pious Method. Divine Equipage, a Cosmological Idea That the Prophet Ezekiel Wouldn’t Have Dreamed of. Excellent Morals, but Not in Line with Today’s Taste. Origins of Evil. Prophesy. Final Causes
Chapter 8: Continuation. Overcoming Doubts about God’s Omniscience. The Book of Job as the Vehicle for a Metaphysical Treatise on Providence
Chapter 9: Mosaic Jurisprudence. The Silly Paganism of the Sabians, an Impetus to Many Otherwise Inexplicable Laws, of Which the Beard Still Remains
Chapter 10: Conclusion of the More Newochim. Excellent Morals. Definition of the True Worship of God, Which Makes Priests Unnecessary
Admonition
Chapter 11: My Arrival in Berlin. Acquaintances. Mendelssohn. Doubting Metaphysical Systems. Teaching Locke and Adelung
Chapter 12: Mendelssohn. A Chapter Dedicated to the Memory of a Great Friend
Chapter 13: My Initial Aversion to Belle Lettres and My Ensuing Conversion. Departure from Berlin. A Stay in Hamburg. I Get Drunk the Way a Bad Actor Shoots Himself. A Foolish Old Woman Falls in Love with Me—and Is Rejected
Chapter 14: I Return to Hamburg. A Lutheran Pastor Calls Me a Mangy Sheep and Claims That I Am Unworthy of Being Taken into the Christian Flock. I Become a Gymnasium Student and Make the Chief Rabbi as Mad as a Ram
Chapter 15: Third Journey to Berlin. Failed Plan to Become a Hebrew Author. Journey to Breslau. Divorce
Chapter 16: Fourth Trip to Berlin. Atrocious Conditions and Help. Study of Kant’s Writings. A Depiction of My Own Works
Concluding Chapter: The Merry Masquerade Ball
Afterword: Maimon’s Philosophical Itinerary, by Gideon Freudenthal
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index
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