Maimonides on Aristotle, Torah, and the Duration and Perfection of the Cosmos

In Guide of the Perplexed II.17-18, arguing against Aristotle's view of the world as eternal, Maimonides appeals to the Hebrew Bible and Talmud. This paper analyzes Maimonides' discussions of these sources by comparison to Aristotle's corpus and argues as follows. Informed by relevant rabbinic debates, Maimonides uses the Genesis creation account, along with descriptions in Deuteronomy and Psalms of God as located in or above the heavens, to counter Aristotle's assumptions concerning cosmic perfection and his consequent views on the world's duration and relation to God. Although only one of the Aristotelian arguments listed in GP II.14 mentions cosmic perfection explicitly, Maimonides' use of the Torah suggests that, for him, responding to Aristotle's view of cosmic perfection is of paramount importance toward a proper criticism of Aristotelian cosmic eternity. Ultimately, Maimonides thinks the principles of Aristotelian natural theory and Aristotle's views on perfection point against the world being eternal.