ABSTRACT
Etienne Gilson has argued that between Socrates and Pascal there is a form of 'Christian Socratism'. Aquinas is concerned with the same aporias of KT as we saw in Augustine and before him Aristotle. He responds with a hierarchy of levels of actuality. The key to understanding this understanding of understanding lies in the nature of actual self-knowing. Alexander Altmann has explored KT in Islamic and Judaic thinking up to the earliest period of the European Renaissance according to three motifs. This chapter explores Altmann's three themes as a whole from the Jewish perspective of Isaac Israeli, Maimonides, and Joseph ibn Saddiq. The Eight Chapters of Maimonides' Introduction to his Commentary on the Mishnah and his Laws Concerning Character Traits from The Book of Knowledge both advise the soul to live in the way of the middle, for it is the way of the wise man, and it is the 'way of the Lord'.
