Harry A. Wolfson's Utilization of the Hypothetico-Deductive Method of Text Study

Harry Austryn Wolfson (1887-1974) was one of the greatest twentieth-century Jewish scholars. Throughout his productive life, Wolfson utilized what he termed the Hypothetico-Deductive Method of Text Study in his analysis of various philosophical texts. This article suggests that there was a flaw in the Method, namely that it assumed as axiomatic that there can never be genuine contradictions in a philosophic work, only "apparent" contradictions which must be explained away. Nevertheless, the Method was highly successful in the study of Crescas because he was a rabbi and shared the viewpoint of Rabbinic Judaism. The significance of the flaw in the Method became obvious, however, when Wolfson utilized the Method in his studies of thinkers who were unaware of, or did not accept, the disputed assumptions of Rabbinic Judaism. A principal effect of Wolfson's flawed Method was that it ignored the contradiction between Spinoza's absolute determinism and his (Spinoza's) doctrine of salvation.