Despite the onerous restrictions on the study of Metaphysics to a select class of persons, one must not think that all the correct conclusions of Metaphysics are also to be hidden from the multitude. In fact, some of the conclusions of (properly conducted) Metaphysics are so important that it is not permissible to let people hold incorrect opinions on them! Examples of Metaphysical facts that “must be taught by simple authority” even to ordinary people include:

  • God’s incorporeality
  • “His exemption from all affections”
  • that there is no similiarity between him and his creatures, not just in quantity but in kind.

Maimonides likens the holding of correct opinions on these questions to holding correct opinions about, say, the Existence and Oneness of God:

it is not proper to leave them [those unversed in Metaphysics] in the belief that God is corporeal, or that He has any of the properties of material objects, just as there is no need to leave them in the belief that God does not exist, that there are more Gods than one, or that any other being may be worshipped

There are other, more complex subjects on which Maimonides clearly thinks it is important to hold corect opinions if one wishes to achieve perfection, but that it is not necessary to teach of these to the multitude. These include, for example, the nature of God’s attributes, his will and perception, Divinie Providence, etc.