Polemic, exegesis, philosophy, and science: Reflections on the tenacity of Ashkenazic modes of thought

Abstract

The presumed absence or near-absence of what we usually call rationalism in medieval Ashkenaz raises a series of questions large and small: If rationalism is in fact absent or largely absent, what accounts for this, especially in light of recent scholarship demonstrating that Ashkenazic Jews were exposed to the works and culture of Sephardic Jewry to a greater degree than we had thought?