Literary Dialectic and its Discontents: Humor and Physics in Immanuel of Rome and Jedaiah Bedersi

This paper examines two Jewish thinkers of the early 14^th century who composed literary works that treat questions in physics in dialectical terms taken from the Hebrew Aristotelian Topics tradition. One of these, Immanuel of Rome, did so in a humorous manner, poking fun at the ways in which dialectic can be used to promote sophisms. The other, Jadaiah Bedersi, probably of Beziers, did so in two epistles that critique another Hebrew physical thinker, possibly Levi Gersonides. Both of these thinkers employ dialectic in an aggressive manner, designed to attack and defeat the physical arguments of their opponents. Even though Immanuel’s approach is one of ridiculing dialectic, his words suggest that at least some interest in dialectic existed outside of his purview. And, indeed, we find such interest in the works of Jedaiah.