DAVID BIRNBAUM SUMMA METAPHYSICA
DAVID BIRNBAUM PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
– from Moreh Nevuchim 72- The Guide for the Perplexed,
by The RAMBAM – Moses Maimonides]
Friedländer translation [1904]
lead sentence to Paragraph 1 of Chapter 72
KNOW that this Universe, in its entirety,
is nothing else but one organism
paragraph 15 (en toto)
“There also exists in the Universe a certain force which controls the whole, which sets in motion the chief and principal parts, and gives them the motive power for governing the rest. Without that force, the existence of this sphere, with its principal and secondary parts, would be impossible. It is the source of the existence of the Universe in all its parts. That force is God: blessed be His name! It is on account of this force that man is called microcosm: for he likewise possesses a certain principle which governs all the forces of the body, and on account of this comparison God is called ‘the life of the Universe,’ compare ‘and he swore by the life of the Universe’ (Daniel xii. 7).”