Maimonides

Moses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or the acronym the Rambam (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מימון‎; Hebrew acronym: רמב"ם; (Arabic: موسى ابن ميمون‎ Mūsā ibn Maymūn), was born in Cordoba, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204.^[5][6].

One of the greatest Torah scholars of all time, he was a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Spain, Morocco and Egypt during the Middle Ages. He was the preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher. With the contemporary Muslim sage Averroes, he promoted and developed the philosophical tradition of Aristotle. As a result, Maimonides and Averroes would gain a prominent and controversial influence in the West, where Aristotelian thought had been suppressed for centuries. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas were notable Western readers of Maimonides.

One of the central tenets of Maimonides's philosophy is that it is impossible for the truths arrived at by human intellect to contradict those revealed by God. Maimonides held to a strictly apophatic theology in which only negative statements toward a description of God may be considered correct. Thus, one does not say "God is One", but rather, "God is not multiple". Although many of his ideas met with the opposition of his contemporaries, Maimonides was embraced by later Jewish thinkers. The fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah today retains canonical authority as a codification of Talmudic law.

Although his copious works on Jewish law and ethics were initially met with opposition during his lifetime, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history. Today, his works and his views are considered a cornerstone of Jewish thought and study.

Maimonides was born in 1135 in Córdoba, in present Spain. His year of birth is disputed, with Shlomo Pines suggesting that he was born in 1138. He was born during what some scholars consider to be the end of the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, after the first centuries of the Moorish rule. At an early age, he developed an interest in the exact sciences and philosophy. In addition to reading the works of Muslim scholars, he also read those of the Greek philosophers made accessible through Arabic translations. Maimonides was not known as a supporter of mysticism. He voiced opposition to poetry, the best of which he declared as false, since it was founded on pure invention - and this too in a land which had produced such noble expressions of the Hebrew and Arabic muse. This Sage, who was revered for his saintly personality as well as for his writings, led an unquiet life, and wrote many of his works while travelling or in temporary accommodation. Maimonides studied Torah under his father Maimon, who had in turn studied under Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash.

The Almohades from Africa conquered Córdoba in 1148, and threatened the Jewish communityconversion to Islam, death, or exile with the choice of . Maimonides's family, along with most other Jews, chose exile. For the next ten years they moved about in southern Spain, avoiding the conquering Almohades, but eventually settled in Fez in Morocco, where Maimonides acquired most of his secular knowledge, studying at the University of Al Karaouine.^{[citation needed]} During this time, he composed his acclaimed commentary on the Mishnah in the years 1166-1168.

Following this sojourn in Morocco, he lived briefly in the Holy Land, before settling in Fostat, Egypt, where he was physician of the Grand Vizier Alfadhil and Sultan Saladin of Egypt, and also treated Richard the Lionheart while on the Crusades.^[10] He was considered to be the greatest physician of his time, being influenced by renowned Islamic thinkers such as Ibn Rushd and Al-Ghazali. He composed most of his œuvre in this last locale, including the Mishneh Torah. He died in Fostat, and was buried in Tiberias (today in Israel). His son Avraham, recognized as a great scholar, succeeded Maimonides as Nagid (head of the Egyptian Jewish community); he also took up his father's role as court physician, at the age of eighteen. He greatly honored the memory of his father, and throughout his career defended his father's writings against all critics. The office of Nagid was held by the Maimonides family for four successive generations until the end of the 14th century.

Maimonides was a devoted physician. In a famous letter, he describes his daily routine: After visiting the Sultan’s palace, he would arrive home exhausted and hungry, where "I would find the antechambers filled with gentiles and Jews ... I would go to heal them, and write prescriptions for their illnesses ... until the evening ... and I would be extremely weak."

He is widely respected in Spain and a statue of him was erected in Córdoba by the only synagogue in that city which escaped destruction, and which is no longer functioning as a Jewish house of worship but is open to the public.

Maimonides was one of the most influential figures in medieval Jewish philosophy. A popular medieval saying that also served as his epitaph states, From Moshe (of the Torah) to Moshe (Maimonides) there was none like Moshe.

Radical Jewish scholars in the centuries that followed can be characterised as "Maimonideans" or "anti-Maimonideans." Moderate scholars were eclectics who largely accepted Maimonides's Aristotelian world-view, but rejected those elements of it which they considered to contradict the religious tradition. Such eclecticism reached its height in the 14th-15th centuries.

The most rigorous medieval critique of Maimonides is Hasdai Crescas' Or Adonai. Crescas bucked the eclectic trend, by demolishing the certainty of the Aristotelian world-view, not only in religious matters, but even in the most basic areas of medieval science (such as physics and geometry). Crescas's critique provoked a number of 15th century scholars to write defenses of Maimonides. A translation of Crescas was produced by Harry Austryn Wolfson of Harvard University, in 1929.

In his commentary on the Mishna (tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 10), Maimonides formulates his 13 principles of faith. They summarized what he viewed as the required beliefs of Judaism with regards to:

1. The existence of God
2. God's unity
3. God's spirituality and incorporeality
4. God's eternity
5. God alone should be the object of worship
6. Revelation through God's prophets
7. The preeminence of Moses among the prophets
8. God's law given on Mount Sinai
9. The immutability of the Torah as God's Law
10. God's foreknowledge of human actions
11. Reward of good and retribution of evil
12. The coming of the Jewish Messiah
13. The resurrection of the dead

These principles were controversial when first proposed, evoking criticism by Rabbi Hasdai Crescas and Rabbi Joseph Albo, and were effectively ignored by much of the Jewish community for the next few centuries. ("Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought," Menachem Kellner). However, these principles became widely held; today, Orthodox Judaism holds these beliefs to be obligatory. Two poetic restatements of these principles (Ani Ma'amin and Yigdal) eventually became canonized in the "siddur" (Jewish prayer book).

Negative theology

The principle which inspired his philosophical activity was identical with the fundamental tenet of Scholasticism: there can be no contradiction between the truths which God has revealed, and the findings of the human mind in science and philosophy. Maimonides primarily relied upon the science of Aristotle and the teachings of the Talmud, commonly finding basis in the former for the latter. In some important points, however, he departed from the teaching of Aristotle; for instance, he rejected the Aristotelian doctrine that God's provident care extends only to humanity, and not to the individual.

Maimonides was led by his admiration for the neo-Platonic commentators to maintain many doctrines which the Scholastics could not accept. For instance, Maimonides was an adherent of "negative theology" (also known as "Apophatic theology".) In this theology, one attempts to describe God through negative attributes. For instance, one should not say that God exists in the usual sense of the term; all we can safely say is that God is not non-existent. We should not say that "God is wise"; but we can say that "God is not ignorant," i.e. in some way, God has some properties of knowledge. We should not say that "God is One," but we can state that "there is no multiplicity in God's being." In brief, the attempt is to gain and express knowledge of God by describing what God is not; rather than by describing what God "is."

The Scholastics agreed with him that no predicate is adequate to express the nature of God; but they did not go so far as to say that no term can be applied to God in the affirmative sense. They admitted that while "eternal," "omnipotent," etc., as we apply them to God, are inadequate, at the same time we may say "God is eternal" etc., and need not stop, as Moses did, with the negative "God is not not-eternal," etc. In essence what Maimonides wanted to express is that when people give God anthropomorphic qualities they do not explain anything more of what God is, because we cannot know anything of the essence of God.

Maimonides' use of apophatic theology is not unique to this time period or to Judaism. For example, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor, Eastern Christian theologians, developed apophatic theology for Christianity nearly 900 years earlier. See Negative theology for uses in other religions.

Prophecy

He agrees with "the philosophers" in teaching that, man's intelligence being one in the series of intelligences emanating from God, the prophet must, by study and meditation, lift himself up to the degree of perfection required in the prophetic state. But here, he invokes the authority of "the Law," which teaches that, after that perfection is reached, there is required the "free acts of God," before the man actually becomes a prophet.

The problem of evil

Maimonides wrote on theodicy (the philosophical attempt to reconcile the existence of a God with the existence of evil in the world). He took the premise that an omnipotent and good God exists. He adopts the Aristotelian view that defines evil as the lack of, or the reduced presence of a God, as exhibited by those who exercise the free choice of rejecting belief.

True beliefs versus necessary beliefs

In "Guide for the Perplexed" Book III, Chapter 28^[15], Maimonides explicitly draws a distinction between "true beliefs," which were beliefs about God which produced intellectual perfection, and "necessary beliefs," which were conducive to improving social order. Maimonides places anthropomorphic personification statements about God in the latter class. He uses as an example the notion that God becomes "angry" with people who do wrong. In the view of Maimonides (taken from Avicenna) God does not actually become angry with people, as God has no human passions; but it is important for them to believe God does, so that they desist from sinning.

Resurrection, acquired immortality, and the afterlife

Maimonides distinguishes two kinds of intelligence in man, the one material in the sense of being dependent on, and influenced by, the body, and the other immaterial, that is, independent of the bodily organism. The latter is a direct emanation from the universal active intellect; this is his interpretation of the noûs poietikós of Aristotelian philosophy. It is acquired as the result of the efforts of the soul to attain a correct knowledge of the absolute, pure intelligence of God.

The knowledge of God is a form of knowledge which develops in us the immaterial intelligence, and thus confers on man an immaterial, spiritual nature. This confers on the soul that perfection in which human happiness consists, and endows the soul with immortality. One who has attained a correct knowledge of God has reached a condition of existence which renders him immune from all the accidents of fortune, from all the allurements of sin, and even from death itself. Man, therefore is in a position not only to work out his own salvation and immortality.

The resemblance between this doctrine and Spinoza's doctrine of immortality is so striking as to warrant the hypothesis that there is a causal dependence of the latter on the earlier doctrine. The differences between the two Jewish thinkers are, however, as remarkable as the resemblance. While Spinoza teaches that the way to attain the knowledge which confers immortality is the progress from sense-knowledge through scientific knowledge to philosophical intuition of all things sub specie æternitatis, Maimonides holds that the road to perfection and immortality is the path of duty as described in the Torah and the rabbinic understanding of the oral law.

Religious Jews not only believed in immortality in some spiritual sense, but most believed that there would at some point in the future be a messianic era, and a resurrection of the dead. This is the subject of Jewish eschatology. Maimonides wrote much on this topic, but in most cases he wrote about the immortality of the soul for people of perfected intellect; his writings were usually not about the resurrection of dead bodies. This prompted hostile criticism from the rabbis of his day, and sparked a controversy over his true views.

Rabbinic works usually refer to this afterlife as "Olam Haba" (the World to Come). Some rabbinic works use this phrase to refer to a messianic era, an era of history right here on Earth; in other rabbinic works this phrase refers to a purely spiritual realm. It was during Maimonides's lifetime that this lack of agreement flared into a full blown controversy, with Maimonides charged as a heretic by some Jewish leaders.

Some Jews at this time taught that Judaism did not require a belief in the physical resurrection of the dead, as the afterlife would be a purely spiritual realm. They used Maimonides's works on this subject to back up their position. In return, their opponents claimed that this was outright heresy; for them the afterlife was right here on Earth, where God would raise dead bodies from the grave so that the resurrected could live eternally. Maimonides was brought into this dispute by both sides, as the first group stated that his writings agreed with them, and the second group portrayed him as a heretic for writing that the afterlife is for the immaterial spirit alone. Eventually, Maimonides felt pressured to write a treatise on the subject, the "Ma'amar Tehiyyat Hametim" "The Treatise on Resurrection."

Chapter two of the treatise on resurrection refers to those who believe that the world to come involves physically resurrected bodies. Maimonides refers to one with such beliefs as being an "utter fool" whose belief is "folly".

If one of the multitude refuses to believe [that angels are incorporeal] and prefers to believe that angels have bodies and even that they eat, since it is written (Genesis 18:8) 'they ate', or that those who exist in the World to Come will also have bodies—we won't hold it against him or consider him a heretic, and we will not distance ourselves from him. May there not be many who profess this folly, and let us hope that he will go no farther than this in his folly and believe that the Creator is corporeal.

However, Maimonides also writes that those who claimed that he altogether believed the verses of the Hebrew Bible referring to the resurrection were only allegorical were spreading falsehoods and "revolting" statements. Maimonides asserts that belief in resurrection is a fundamental truth of Judaism about which there is no disagreement, and that it is not permissible for a Jew to support anyone who believes differently. He cites Daniel 12:2 and 12:13 as definitive proofs of physical resurrection of the dead when they state "many of them that sleep in the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence" and "But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days."

While these two positions may be seen as in contradiction (non-corporeal eternal life, versus a bodily resurrection), Maimonides resolves them with a then unique solution: Maimonides believed that the resurrection was not permanent or general. In his view, God never violates the laws of nature. Rather, divine interaction is by way of angels, which Maimonides often regards to be metaphors for the laws of nature, the principles by which the physical universe operates, or Platonic eternal forms. [This is not always the case. In Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah Chaps. 2-4, Maimonides describes angels that are actually created beings.] Thus, if a unique event actually occurs, even if it is perceived as a miracle, it is not a violation of the world's order.

In this view, any dead who are resurrected must eventually die again. In his discussion of the 13 principles of faith, the first five deal with knowledge of God, the next four deal with prophecy and the Torah, while the last four deal with reward, punishment and the ultimate redemption. In this discussion Maimonides says nothing of a universal resurrection. All he says it is that whatever resurrection does take place, it will occur at an indeterminate time before the world to come, which he repeatedly states will be purely spiritual.

He writes "It appears to us on the basis of these verses (Daniel 12:2,13) that those people who will return to those bodies will eat, drink, copulate, beget, and die after a very long life, like the lives of those who will live in the Days of the Messiah." Maimonides thus disassociated the resurrection of the dead from both the World to Come and the Messianic era.

In his time, many Jews believed that the physical resurrection was identical to the world to come; thus denial of a permanent and universal resurrection was considered tantamount to denying the words of the Talmudic sages. However, instead of denying the resurrection, or maintaining the current dogma, Maimonides posited a third way: That resurrection had nothing to do with the messianic era (here in this world) nor to do with Olam Haba (עולם הבא) (the purely spiritual afterlife). Rather, he considered resurrection to be a miracle that the book of Daniel predicted; thus at some point in time we could expect some instances of resurrection to occur temporarily, which would have no place in the final eternal life of the righteous.

Maimonides remains the most widely debated Jewish thinker among modern scholars. He has been adopted as a symbol and an intellectual hero by almost all major movements in modern Judaism, and has proven immensely important to philosophers such as Leo Strauss; and his views on the importance of humility have been taken up by modern humanist philosophers, like Peter Singer and Iain King. In academia, particularly within the area of Jewish Studies, the teaching of Maimonides has been dominated by traditional, generally Orthodox scholars, who place a very strong emphasis on Maimonides as a rationalist. The result of this is many sides of Maimonides's thought, for example his opposition to anthropocentrism, have been obviated. There is some movement in postmodern circles, e.g. within the discourse of ecotheology, to claim Maimonides for other purposes. Maimonides's reconciliation of the philosophical and the traditional has given his legacy an extremely diverse and dynamic quality.

Maimonides has been memorialized in numerous ways. For example, one of the Learning Communities at the Tufts University School of Medicine bears his name. There is also Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, the Brauser Maimonides Academy in Hollywood, Florida, and Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. In 2004, conferences were held at Yale, Florida International University, Penn State, and the Rambam hospital in Haifa. To commemorate the 800th anniversary of his death, Harvard University issued a memorial volume. In 1953, the Israel Postal Authority issued a postage stamp of Maimonides, pictured. In March 2008, during the Euromed Conference of Ministers of Tourism, The Tourism Ministries of Israel, Morocco and Spain agreed to work together on a joint project that will trace the footsteps of the Rambam and thus boost religious tourism in the cities of Córdoba, Fez and Tiberias.

Moses Maimonidész (vagy Majmonidész, 1137 / 1138 – 1204), teljes nevén Mose ben Maimon (héberül: משה בן מימון), saját nyelvén, arabul: موسى بن ميمون بن عبد الله القرطبي الإسرائيلي (Múszá ibn Majmún ibn Abdalláh al-Kurtubí al-Iszráílí), zsidó rabbi, orvos, filozófus; Spanyolországban és Egyiptomban tevékenykedett a középkorban. Héber nyelvű művekben Maimoni (מימוני) néven említik, de találkozunk a Mose ben Maimon rabbi névváltozattal és ennek héber rövidítésével RáMBáM formával is.

Az ő nevéhez fűződik a zsidó vallásjog (halakha) törvényeinek a rendszerbe foglalása (Misné Tórá) a Talmud alapján.

1137/38-ban született Córdobában, ami az ő korában az arab kultúra egyik központja volt. (A korábbi szakirodalomban szereplő 1135-ös születési dátum téves.) Tanulmányait kezdetben apja útmutatása mellett végezte, aki rabbinikus bíró (dajján) volt. De ugyanekkor ismerkedett meg az antik görög és arab filozófiával is, arab tudósok közvetítésével.

Mikor 1148-ban, Spanyolországban a fanatikus muszlim Almohád-mozgalom hatására a zsidó lakosságot kényszerítették vallásuk elhagyására, Maimonidész családja inkább a száműzetést választotta és Észak-Afrikába menekült. 1159-ben a család a marokkói, Fez nevű városban telepedett le, majd 1165-be Jeruzsálembe költözött. Innen Egyiptomba költöztek tovább, először Alexandria városba, majd a mai Kairó helyén állt Fusztát nevű városba, ahol Maimonidész életének végéig élt.

A család vándorlása közben Maimonidész nem hagyta abba a tanulmányait: orvoslást tanult és Arisztotelészt és egyéb filozófiai műveket tanulmányozott. Fusztátban Maimonidész a rabbinikus bíróság tagja, és egy nem bizonyított hipotézis szerint a zsidó közösség vezetője (Nagid, vagy raisz al-jahud) lett, majd 1185-től Szaladin, Egyiptom és Szíria ajjúbida szultánjának a személyes orvosa. Mindez idő közben számos művet és tanulmányt írt. Írt egy filozófiai logikával foglalkozó művet (aminek autenticitását újabban kétségbevonják); egy judeo-arab nyelvű kommentárt a Misnához; a Tóra 613 parancsának felsorolását (Széfer ha-micvot); a Misné Torá törvénykönyvet; A tévelygők útmutatója című judeo-arabul írt filozófiai értekezlést, továbbá számos levelét, amelyeket különböző zsidó közösségeknek írt. Misna-kommentár eredetileg arab nyelven íródott, majd később fordították héber nyelvre.

Maimonidésznek különösen a Misné Torá című munkája ismert. Ebben összefoglalja a zsidó vallásjog (halakha) teljes anyagát. Eltérve a korábbi hagyománytól Maimonidész nem tárgyalja a törvények talmudi forrásait. Ehelyett arra törekszik, hogy a zsidó vallást logikus egészként mutassa be. Második legfontosabb műve a Tévelygők útmutatója. Ebben a műben azokhoz fordult, akik a filozófiával való foglalkozás közben hitükben elbizonytalanodtak, és azt akarja megmutatni, hogy hogyan válhat a hit sajáttá a tudomány közvetítésével: ahol a tudományos ismeretek ellentmondanak a bibliai szövegnek, ott allegorikusan kell értelmezni azokat.

Maimonidész negatív teológiát képvisel, ami azt jelenti, hogy Isten lényegéről csak tagadó módon lehet beszélni. Az állítások csak Isten hatásaira vonatkoznak és nem a lényegére.

A 13 hittétel

Maimonidész a zsidó vallás tanait, a Misna kommentárokban (Sanhedrin, 10. fejezet) 13 hittételben foglalta össze:

1. A Teremtő Istenben hiszek.
2. Isten egyetlen
3. Isten szellemi lény.
4. Isten az első és utolsó.
5. Istenen kívül senki sem méltó az imádásra.
6. A próféták szavai igazak.
7. Mózes a próféták atyja.
8. A mai Tóra a Mózesnek átadottal megegyezik.
9. Nincs más Tóra.
10. Isten ismeri az ember gondolatát, tud tetteikről, megérti minden tettünket.
11. Isten a parancs meg nem tartóját bünteti, a megőrzőit jóval fizeti.
12. Hit az eljövendő Messiásban, és az ő várása.
13. Hit a holtak feltámadásban.

Steven F. Seagal

Steven F. Seagal (born April 10, 1952) is an American action movie actor, producer, writer, director, martial artist and singer-songwriter. He belongs to a generation of movie action hero actors (including Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren and Sylvester Stallone) who were featured in many blockbuster action films of the late 1980s and 1990s.

A 6' 4" (193 cm) 7th-dan black belt in aikido, Seagal began his adult life as an aikido instructor in Japan. He became the first foreigner to operate an aikido dojo in Osaka, Japan. He later moved to the Los Angeles, California area where he made his film debut in 1988 in Above the Law. Since then, Seagal has become a major action star, mainly due to his films of the 1990s such as Under Siege (1992) and Under Siege 2 (1995) where he played Navy SEALs counter-terrorist expert Casey Ryback. In total his movies have earned in excess of $850 million worldwide.

Seagal is also a recording artist and guitarist and the founder of Steven Seagal Enterprises. In addition to his professional achievements, he is also known as an environmentalist, an animal rights activist and, like other actors such as Richard Gere, is a supporter of Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama and the cause of Tibetan independence. Spiritualism and Buddhism play an important role in Seagal's life and he has been recognized by Tibetan lama Penor Rinpoche as a reincarnated Tulku. According to Seagal in a November 2006 interview: "I was born very different, clairvoyant and a healer".

Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan, where he lived until he was five years old. His mother, Patricia, was a medical technician, and his father a high school math teacher.^[5] His mother was Irish and his father Jewish.The family relocated to Fullerton, California, where Seagal attended the Buena Park High School in Buena Park, California. Following his graduation, Seagal held one of his first jobs at the local Burger King.

It was allegedly at the age of seven that Seagal first began studying martial arts under the direction of renowned Shitō-ryū karate master Fumio Demura and aikido under Rod Kobayashi, the President of the Western States Aikido Federation. He earned belts in aikido, karate, judo, and kendo and in his late teens, Seagal became part of Demura's Karate Demonstration Team and performed daily demonstrations in the former Japanese Village and Deer Park, in Southern California. In 1974, he was promoted by Kobayashi-sensei to shodan in Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido (a fact disputed by ex-wife Miyako Fujitani [below]). He was also reported as having trained in Mas Oyama's Kyokushin Kai karate do.

Return to the U.S.

Seagal initially returned to Taos, New Mexico, with his student—and later a film stuntman—Craig Dunn. There, they opened a dojo, but Seagal spent much of his time pursuing a film career and other ventures. Dunn stayed in New Mexico and continued to run the dojo. After another period in Japan, Seagal returned to the U.S. in 1983 with senior student Haruo Matsuoka. They opened an aikido dojo, initially in Burbank, California, but later moved it to the city of West Hollywood. Seagal left Matsuoka in charge of the dojo, which he ran until the two parted ways in 1997. It was during that period that Seagal first found himself in contact with Hollywood. Initially, he worked as the martial arts co-ordinator for the films The Challenge (1982) starring Scott Glenn and Toshirô Mifune, and Never Say Never Again (1983) starring Sean Connery.

In 1988, Seagal began work on his first film, Above the Law (titled Nico in Europe), with director Andrew Davis and reportedly as a favor to a former aikido student, the agent Michael Ovitz, who believed he could make anyone a star.^[7] Following its success, Seagal made three more movies – Hard to Kill, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice – that were box office hits, making him an action hero. Later, he achieved wider, mainstream success in 1992 with the release of Under Siege (1992). That film reunited Seagal with director Andrew Davis, and was a blockbuster in the U.S. and abroad, grossing $156.4 million worldwide.^[8]

He then filmed a sequel to one of his most successful films Under Siege titled Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) and the cop drama The Glimmer Man (1996). In 1996, he had his first supporting role, in the Kurt Russell film Executive Decision (1996), which featured him in a starring role, but kept secret his character's fate. Then, he again made an environmentally-conscious film, Fire Down Below (1997), wherein he was an EPA agent fighting industrialists dumping toxic waste in the Kentucky hills, but the movie was commercially unsuccessful. This film ended his original multi-picture contract with Warner Bros., and because of its disaster, his contract was not renewed.

The next year, Seagal made The Patriot, another environmental thriller which was his first direct-to-video release in the United States (though it was released theatrically in most of the world). Seagal produced this film with his own money, and the film was shot on-location on and near his farm in Montana.

After taking a couple years to produce Prince of Central Park, Seagal returned to cinema screens with the release of Exit Wounds in March 2001. The film had fewer martial arts scenes than Seagal's previous films, but it was a commercial success, taking almost $80 million worldwide. However, he was unable to capitalize on this success and his next two projects were both critical and commercial failures. Ticker co-starring Tom Sizemore and Dennis Hopper, and filmed in San Francisco before Exit Wounds, went straight to DVD while Half Past Dead, starring rap star Ja Rule, made less than $20 million worldwide.

As of May 2008^[update], all of the films Seagal has made since 2003 have been released direct-to-video (DTV) in North America, with only limited theatrical releases in the rest of the world. Though Seagal is credited as a producer (and sometimes a writer) on many of these DTV movies, it is unclear how deeply involved he was in their production - his voice is often dubbed in by another actor as seen in the film Attack Force and a double is used in almost any scene where his face is not shown clearly. The most notable stunt doubles are in his films Black Dawn, Belly of the Beast, Out of Reach and Submerged. One of his most recent films, Kill Switch (2008), also featured extensive fight-double footage added in post-production to unintentionally humorous effect.

His latest direct-to-video films include Urban Justice (2007), Pistol Whipped (2008), Against The Dark (2009), Kill Switch (2008), and Driven to Kill (2009). He has finished filming The Keeper (2009) for a projected 2009 release.

Seagal intends to have his films remembered; "I am hoping that I can be known as a great writer and actor some day, rather than a sex symbol." Seagal has clarified the purpose of his films: "Above the Law was a politically conscientious movie. On Deadly Ground was environmentally conscientious so I want to keep making movies like that which are more geared with a certain entertainment value but also bring people forward into contemplation."

Seagal has produced many of the movies that he stars in, and has also participated in writing and directing. Seagal's roles do not fit the standard action hero archetype; instead, Seagal's characters are usually "born perfect," displaying no limitations, character flaws, or character development (as is typically included in the story arc for most action heroes). His characters are often associated with attributes given to action movie antagonists or villains, such as clandestine government associations (Under Siege), great wealth and high-level corporate ties (On Deadly Ground), high-level biochemical research skill (The Patriot). Seagal's characters are normally nigh-on invincible and are unable to be beaten or even slowed down. Reports state that Seagal insists on such roles, even allegedly becoming hysterical when his character was scripted to die a heroic death in the movie Executive Decision, when director Stuart Baird insisted he must do it as scripted. Seagal held up filming for a few days, and finally acted the death scene as scripted after threat of contractual breach.

While his acting performance in Above The Law gained praise from Roger Ebert, Seagal has repeatedly faced criticism from both actors and fans who accuse him of playing the same character in many of his movies (see typecasting), as well as displaying a lack of emotional range.

Others have surmised that Seagal's unorthodox approach to film is actually an elaborate joke.^[12] This is supported by Seagal's statement regarding humor: "I’m a very funny guy, if you’ll forgive me for saying so. When I did The Glimmer Man with Keenan Ivory Wayans, he and I were talking about who was funniest, and...I kicked his ass every day."^[13] In addition, some of Seagal's own self-parody supports this view. In at least one commercial for Orange SA, Seagal pokes fun at his action star archetype.In addition to acting and aikido, Seagal also plays the guitar, and his songs have been featured in several of his movies (such as Fire Down Below and Ticker). In 2005, he released his first album, Songs from the Crystal Cave, which has a mix of pop, world, and blues music. It features duets with Tony Rebel, Lt. Stichie, Lady Saw, and Stevie Wonder. The soundtrack to Seagal's 2005 film Into the Sun features several songs from the album. One of his album tracks, "Girl It's Alright," was also released as a single in parts of the world alongside an accompanying music video created for it.

Seagal's second album, titled Mojo Priest, was released in April 2006. Subsequently, he spent summer 2006 touring the United States and Europe with his band, Thunderbox, in support of the album. Having received good support from UK audiences, the tour continues through early 2007.

Seagal uses a blend of Blues, Country, World Music and Euro techno in his unique compositions, reflecting the eclectic mosaic style of his martial arts and film work, both of which combine different styles (aikido/gunfire and action/lecture are respective examples). Seagal is also known for his live cover versions including seminal works like Don Macleans' 'American Pie' and Hot Gossips' 'I Fell In Love With a Starship Trooper'.

Despite initial doubts by music industry insiders about his success as a musician, the sales volume that his albums have received proved them wrong. While there is no true institution to monitor every record that Seagal has sold, estimates range from between 9 to 13 million albums sold in the domestic U.S. market, mostly to under privileged inner city youths who find his voice inspiring, and double the sales figure for global sales.

Seagal is currently a deputy sheriff of his home community of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. In November 2008, A&E announced that they have begun filming Steven Seagal: Lawman, a reality show that follows his on- and off-duty work in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Seagal stated that "I’ve decided to work with A&E on this series now because I believe it’s important to show the nation all the positive work being accomplished here in Louisiana—to see the passion and commitment that comes from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in this post-Katrina environment.”

Seagal Enterprises markets an energy drink known as Steven Seagal's Lightning Bolt, as well as an herbal oil product line.^[16] Seagal personally endorses this drink, "I have traveled the world creating this drink; there is none better that I know."^[16] He also has his own aftershave called Scent of Action. Seagal has his own imprint of Kershaw Knives. The "Steven Seagal Edition" knives feature 4" blades with his signature etched in, and no auto-assisted opening mechanism.

An only son, he has three sisters, one older and two younger. He now keeps a dude ranch in Colorado and a home in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles. He has adopted many animals from shelters, including the cats Sylvester and Gap, and the dogs Gruff, Cole, Tyson, Hamlet, and Chaos.^[17] Steven travels back and forth to a home in Eads, Tennessee, a rural unincorporated area located just east of Memphis, Tennessee.

Seagal has six children from three relationships in which he has been involved. With Fujitani, he had a son, model and actor Kentaro Seagal (b. October 3, 1975), and a daughter, writer and actress, Ayako Fujitani (b. December 5, 1979). His three children with LeBrock are daughters Annaliza (b. 1987) and Arissa (b. 1993), and son Dominic (b. 1990). Seagal and Arissa Wolf have one daughter, Savannah (b. 1996).

In addition to his biological children, Seagal's Tibetan Buddhist beliefs have also placed him in the role of guardian to a Tibetan child, Yabshi Pan Rinzinwangmo. Rinzinwangmo, or "Renji," is the only child of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. Renji studied in the United States at American University, and Seagal was her guardian and bodyguard.^[21]

Seagal has been an outspoken opponent of animal cruelty which can be seen in a scene in the movie Out for Justice. This is consistent with his views on spirituality, as well as his environmentalist views (as showcased in On Deadly Ground). Seagal believes in reincarnation: "When I walk into a room some people see a dog, some people see a cow. I am all of what they see. It is their perception."

Steven has described his activism method as "shaming companies into changing," a theme that is visible in such films as On Deadly Ground and Fire Down Below. He has worked with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to discourage the fur trade, and has written to the Prime Minister of India to seek increased legal protection for cows. Seagal worked effectively towards saving dogs destined to drown in Taiwan.

This activism has not diminished in recent years. For these and other efforts, Seagal was awarded a PETA Humanitarian Award in 1999.^[23] In 2003, Seagal wrote an open letter to the leadership of Thailand, urging them to enact law to prevent the torture of baby elephants.
Steven Seagal (született 1951. április 10-én) amerikai akciófilm-színész, producer, forgatókönyvíró, harcművész, énekes-dalszerző, spiritualista és aktivista. Színészként az 1980-as évek végén és a ’90-es évek elején akciófilmes szerepeivel vált híressé.

Seagal – aki 7 danos fekete öves aikidomester – fiatal felnőttként aikido-oktatóként dolgozott Japánban; ő volt az első külföldi, aki Ószakában saját edzőtermet üzemeltetett. Később Los Angelesbe költözött és 1988-ban Nico című filmjével debütált a tengerentúlon. A ’90-es években a színész jellegzetes akciósztárrá vált, olyan filmekkel, mint az Úszó erőd (1992) vagy a Száguldó erőd (1995). Filmjeivel világszerte összesen több mint 850 millió dollár bevételt ért el. Seagal filmes pályafutásán túl zenészként és gitárosként is tevékenykedik, de hivatásos munkáján túl aktív környezetvédő és állatjogi aktivista, valamint Richard Gere-hez hasonlóan a dalai láma támogatója és Tibet függetlenségének szószólója.

Seagal a Michigan állambeli Lansingben született, családjával ötéves koráig élt ebben a városban. Édesanyja, Patricia az egészségügyben dolgozott, édesapja középiskolai matematikatanár volt. A család a kaliforniai Fullertonba költözött, ahol Seagal hétéves korában kezdett érdeklődni a harcművészetek iránt; először karatét, mjad aikidót tanult. Aikidóból, karatéból és kendóból fekete övet szerzett és a karatés bemutatócsapat tagja lett.

A diploma megszerzése után Seagal az akkori barátnőjével, Miyako Fujitanival (akit később feleségül vett és akitől két gyermeke született) Japánba költözött, a fiatal pár a lány szüleinél élt, akik aikidót oktattak; rossz nyelvek szerint csupán azért költözött Japánba, hogy elkerülje a besorozást az akkor dúló vietnami háborúba és házasságának valódi célja is a lehetséges hadba hívás megakadályozása volt.

1988-ban Seagal Andrew Davis rendezővel elkészítette első filmjét, Nico (Above the Law) címmel. Ezt az átlagos bűnügyi thrillernek induló filmet az akciójelenetekkel és a karakterábrázolásokkal sikerre vitték. Ezután Seagal három további filmben szerepelt – Ölve vagy halva (Hard to Kill, 1990), Halálra jelölve (Marked for Death, 1990) és Törvényre törve (Out for Justice, 1991) – melyek jegyeladási szempontból sikert arattak és a színész igazi akciófilmes hőssé avanzsálták. Az 1992-es Úszó erőd (Under Siege) című film még szélesebb körben ismertté tette, az USA-ban és külföldön egyaránt, összesen 156,4 millió dollár bevétellel.

Az Úszó erőd pozitív fogadtatása után Seagal rendezőként debütált a Lángoló jég (On Deadly Ground) című 1994-es környezetvédelmi filmmel, melyben Michael Caine mellett szerepelt, de a film nézettségi, kritikai és pénzügyi kudarcot is vallott (az elkészítése 50 millió dollárba került, de az USA-ban csak 39 millió dolláros bevételt hozott).^[2]

Hogy népszerűségét visszaszerezze, Seagal 1995-ben folytatást készített legsikeresebb filmjéhez, az Úszó erődhöz, Száguldó erőd (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory) címmel és a Tisztítótűz (The Glimmer Man) című 1996-os rendőrdrámában is főszerepet vállalt. Még ugyanebben az évben, először tűnt fel mellékszereplőként Kurt Russell oldalán a Tűzparancsban (Executive Decision), ezután 1997-ben a Lángoló jég után újabb környezetvédelemmel foglalkozó filmet készített, Tűz a mélyben (Fire Down Below) címmel, de ez a film a bevétel szempontjából bukásnak számított. A Warner Bros. ekkor a sikertelen film miatt már nem újított szerződést a színésszel.

1998-ban Seagal ismét elkészített egy környezetvédelmi thrillert, A patriótát (The Patriot), mely első olyan filmje volt, amelyet közvetlenül videón jelentettek meg az Egyesült Államokban (noha a legtöbb országban moziban is bemutatták). A színész a filmet saját tőkéből gyártotta, és montanai birtokán forgatta le.

Miután pár évre a Prince of Central Park című családi film producere volt, Seagal 2001-ben tért vissza a mozivászonra Sebhelyek (Exit Wounds) című akciófilmjével. Ez ugyan kevesebb harcművész jelenetet tartalmazott, mint korábbi filmjei, de pénzügyileg sikeres volt és majdnem 80 millió dollár bevételt ért el. Seagal azonban nem tudta meglovagolni sikerét, és két következő filmjével minden téren kudarcot vallott; a Másodpercekre a haláltól (Ticker) csak DVD-n jelent meg, míg a Félholttal (Half Past Dead), melyben a rapsztár Ja Rule is szerepelt, mindössze 20 millió dollárt keresett világszerte.

2008 májusáig az összes Seagal-film, mely 2003 után készült, közvetlenül videón jelent meg az USA-ban, a a világ többi országában is csak pár helyen mutatták be őket moziban. Habár ezek közül sok filmben Seagalt tüntetik fel producerként (és néha íróként is), nem tudni, valójában mennyire vett részt ezen filmek elkészítésében; a hangját ugyanis sokszor egy másik színész kölcsönözte és szinte az összes jelenetben dublőrt alkalmaztak helyette – például az Idegen 2 - Sötét hajnal (Black Dawn), A fenevad gyomrában (Belly of the Beast), A megmentő (Out of Reach) és a Terror a tenger alatt (Submerged) című filmekben.

Legutóbbi videófilmjei közé tartozik a Volt egyszer egy igazság (Urban Justice, 2007), a Piszkos lappal (Pistol Whipped, 2008), a Könyörtelen csapás és a Ruslan. Legújabb, The Keeper című filmje várhatólag 2009-ben jelenik majd meg.