Gersonides' Criticism of the Aristotelian System and of Averroes's Interpretation of Aristotle in his Supercommentary on the Epitome of the Physics

The article focuses on Gersonides' criticism of the Aristotelian system in his supercommentary on the Epitome of the Physics. I shall explain the presumed evolution of Gersonides' overall criticism through his first supercommentary written on Averroes's commentaries on Aristotle's books on nature. This supercommentary presents twelve scientific disagreements of Gersonides with Aristotle or Averroes (in most cases Gersonides did not differentiate between the two), examines Gersonides' scientific arguments, and compares the discussions to similar discussions found in Gersonides' other supercommentaries as well as in his Wars of the Lord. The article concludes that even though there is evidence for the existence of a recension of the Wars produced before Gersonides wrote his supercommentary on the Epitome of the Physics, Gersonides changed his mind several times during the years and toiled on all his works for a protracted period, while going back and revising them a number of times even after he thought he had completed each of them. Therefore, it is impossible to reconstruct the earlier versions of the Wars (as well as his supercommentary), because there is no single early recension.