Moses Ibn Tibbon’s Answers to Queries on Physics: Sources and Problems

This is a preliminary presentation of Moses Ibn Tibbon’s Answers to Queries on Physics, to be followed by an edition and English translation of the text. This treatise, preserved in a single manuscript, was inspired by queries sent to Ibn Tibbon by his nephew, probably Jacob ben Makhir. Ibn Tibbon shaped his answers as an introduction to Aristotelian natural science, apparently aiming at an all-inclusive, if concise, presentation of sublunar physics and cosmology. Into this he incorporates some astrology and metaphysics, as well as an interpretation of Jacob’s ladder. The Answers collates the interpretations of Aristotle by Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, and Samuel Ibn Tibbon. Some problems implied by Ibn Tibbon’s treatment of their theories are discussed. The Answers does more than simply add to our knowledge of Moses Ibn Tibbon’s science and of the Tibbon family’s customary method of study. It also offers the possibility of understanding the study of natural philosophy among Jews during the years that separate Moses Ibn Tibbon from the fourteenth century. Pointing out some difficulties in the basic assumptions of Aristotelian theory, Answers may be a precursor of the attitudes of the scholars of that later time and their sophisticated discussions of the same difficulties.