FALAQUERA (PALQUERA), SHEM-ṬOB BEN JOSEPH:
Spanish philosopher and poet: born 1225; died after 1290. He was well versed in Arabic and Greek philosophy, and had a fine critical sense. Falaquera unfortunately gives no informationconcerning his own personality. He was the author of:
- Iggeret Hanhagat ha-Guf we ha-Nefesh, a treatise in verse on the control of the body and the soul.
- Ẓeri ha-Yagon, on resignation and fortitude under misfortune. Cremona, 1550.
- Iggeret ha-Wikkuaḥ, a dialogue between an orthodox Jew and a philosopher on the harmony of philosophy and religion, being an attempt to prove that not only the Bible, but even the Talmud, is in perfect accord with philosophy. Prague, 1810.
- Reshit Ḥokmah, treating of moral duties (and giving the so-called "ethical epistles" of Aristotle), of the sciences, and of the necessity of studying philosophy. In this Shem-Ṭob treats of the philosophy of Aristotle and Plato. This and the preceding work have been translated into Latin (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS. Latin, No. 6691A).
- Sefer ha-Ma'alot, on the different degrees of human perfection; ed. L. Venetianer, 1891.
- Ha-Mebaḳḳesh, a survey of human knowledge in the form of a dialogue in rimed prose interspersed with verse. This work is a remodeling of the "Reshit Ḥokmah." Amsterdam, 1779.
- Sefer ha-Nefesh, a psychological treatise according to the Arabian Peripatetics, especially Avicenna. Brody, 1835.
- Moreh ha-Moreh, commentary on the philosophical part of the "Moreh Nebukim" of Maimonides, with an appendix containing corrections of the Hebrew translation of Samuel ibn Tibbon. Presburg, 1837.
- Letter in defense of the "Moreh Nebukim," which had been attacked by several French rabbis; published in the "Minḥat Ḳena'ot." Presburg, 1838.
- Extracts from Ibn Gabirol's "Meḳor Ḥayyim," published by Solomon Munk in his "Mélanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe." Paris, 1859.
- De'ot ha-Filusufim, containing Aristotle's "Physics and Metaphysics" according to Ibn Roshd's interpretations (Steinschneider, "Cat. Hebr. MSS." Leyden, No. 20).
- Iggeret ha-Musar, a compilation of ethical sentences (comp. "Orient, Lit." 1879, p. 79).
- Megillat ha-Zikkaron, a historical work, no longer in existence, quoted in the "Mebaḳḳesh."
- Iggeret ha-Ḥalom, a treatise on dreams, mentioned in "Moreh ha-Moreh," iii., ch. 19, p. 131.
Bibliography:
- Munk, Mélanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe, pp. 494-496;
- Renan, Averroès et l'Averroïsme, pp. 183, 187;
- Kaufmann, Studien über Salomon ibn Gabirol 1899, pp. 1-3;
- Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 2537-2548;
- idem, Hebr. Uebers. pp. 8, 18, 37, 356, 380, 422;
- Güdemann, Das Jüdische Unterrichtswesen, i. 155-157;
- Grätz, Gesch. vii. 219 et seq.;
- Straschoun, Pirḥe Ẓafon, i. 46;
- L. Venetianer, Semtob ibn Fala-Kéra, in Magyar Zsido Szemle, 1890, viii. 74-82, 144-155.
