Abraham Bibago on Intellectual Conjunction and Human Happiness: Faith and Metaphysics according to a 15th Century Jewish Averroist

The 15th century Jewish Aragonian thinker, Abraham Bibago treats conjunction in his two main works, Derekh Emunah (“The Way of Faith”) and Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. In the former, which explicitly interprets Biblical and Talmudic stories along philosophical lines, Bibago promotes a neo-Platonic intellectual emanation schema and boldly asserts that human happiness is attained through conjunction with higher intellects. In the Commentary, which primarily treats Aristotle’s Metaphyics and Averroes’ commentaries on it, Bibago gives an account of conjunction that does not necessarily fit with the intellectual conjunction of Derekh Emunah. Indeed, his remarks in the Commentary are much less decisive about human happiness, suggesting that Bibago qua philosopher is more open minded about the summum bonum than he is qua religious thinker.