Politics and Perfection: Gersonides vs. Maimonides

Gersonides (1288-1344) is consistent in seeing the pure life of the mind as the highest end to which a human being can aspire. Maimonides (11$8-1204) certainly presented the vita contemplativa as a crucially important goal but made room in his view of the perfected life for what we would call today statesmanship or politics. Gersonides' view is surprising because he refuses to follow the Platonists in their call for some sort of integration between the vita contemplativa and the vita activa, the Aristotelians who called for their separation, or ibn Bajja in his insistence that the philosopher withdraw from society.