Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect

Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect
Author: Herbert Alan Davidson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 374
Release: 1992
Genre: Intellect
ISBN: 0195074238

A study of problems revolving around the subject of intellect in the philosophies of Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, this book pays particular attention to the way in which these philosophers addressed the tangle of issues that grew up around the active intellect.

Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect

Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect
Author: Herbert A. Davidson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 374
Release: 1992-09-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019536077X

A study of problems, all revolving around the subject of intellect in the philosophies of Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, this book starts by reviewing discussions in Greek and early Arabic philosophy which served as the background for the three Arabic thinkers. Davidson examines the cosmologies and theories of human and active intellect in the three philosophers and covers such subjects as: the emanation of the supernal realm from the First Cause; the emanation of the lower world from the transcendent active intellect; stages of human intellect; illumination of the human intellect by the transcendent active intellect; conjunction of the human intellect with the transcendent active intellect; prophecy; and human immortality. Davidson shows that medieval Jewish philosophers and the Latin Scholastics had differing perceptions of Averroes because they happened to use works belonging to different periods of his philosophic career.

Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes

Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes
Author: Catarina Belo
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2007-02-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9047419154

This book examines the question whether medieval Muslim philosophers Avicenna (Arabic Ibn Sīnā 980-1037) and Averroes (Arabic Ibn Rushd 1126-1198) are determinists. With a focus on physics and metaphysics it studies their views on chance events in nature, as well as matter, in particular prime matter, and divine providence. In addition it sets their positions against the historical/philosophical background that influenced their response, the Greco-Arabic philosophical tradition - Aristotelian and Neoplatonic - on the one hand, and the tradition of Islamic theology (kalām) on the other. In comparing their philosophical systems, it lays emphasis on the way in which Avicenna and Averroes use these traditions to offer an original answer to the problem of determinism.

The Philosophical Poetics of Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes

The Philosophical Poetics of Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes
Author: Salim Kemal
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1136121226

This book examines the studies of Aristotle's Poetics and its related texts in which three Medieval philosophers - Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes - proposed a conception of poetic validity (beauty), and a just relation between subjects in a community (goodness). The work considers the relation of the Poetics to other Aristotelian texts, the transmission of these works to the commentators' context, and the motivations driving the commentators' reception of the texts. The book focuses on issues central to the classical relation of beauty to truth and goodness.

Analytic Islamic Philosophy

Analytic Islamic Philosophy
Author: Anthony Robert Booth
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2018-01-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1137541571

This book is an introduction to Islamic Philosophy, beginning with its Medieval inception, right through to its more contemporary incarnations. Using the language and conceptual apparatus of contemporary Anglo-American ‘Analytic’ philosophy, this book represents a novel and creative attempt to rejuvenate Islamic Philosophy for a modern audience. It adopts a ‘rational reconstructive’ approach to the history of philosophy by affording maximum hermeneutical priority to the strongest possible interpretation of a philosopher’s arguments while also paying attention to the historical context in which they worked. The central canonical figures of Medieval Islamic Philosophy – al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali, Averroes – are presented chronologically along with an introduction to the central themes of Islamic theology and the Greek philosophical tradition they inherited. The book then briefly introduces what the author collectively refers to as the ‘Pre-Modern’ figures including Suhrawardi, Mulla Sadra, and Ibn Taymiyyah, and presents all of these thinkers, along with their Medieval predecessors, as forerunners to the more modern incarnation of Islamic Philosophy: Political Islam.

Al-Farabi, Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism

Al-Farabi, Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism
Author: Majid Fakhry
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1780746652

The only comprehensive introduction to al-Farabi - the first Islamic philosopher to translate the works of Plato and Aristotle. This new survey from a leading scholar documents the philosopher's life, writings and achievements.

Reason Unbound

Reason Unbound
Author: Mohammad Azadpur
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2011-08-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438437641

This intriguing work offers a new perspective on Islamic Peripatetic philosophy, critiquing modern receptions of such thought and highlighting the contribution it can make to contemporary Western philosophy. Mohammad Azadpur focuses on the thought of Alfarabi and Avicenna, who, like ancient Greek philosophers and some of their successors, viewed philosophy as a series of spiritual exercises. However, Muslim Peripatetics differed from their Greek counterparts in assigning importance to prophecy. The Islamic philosophical account of the cultivation of the soul to the point of prophecy unfolds new vistas of intellectual and imaginative experience and accords the philosopher an exceptional dignity and freedom. With reference to both Islamic and Western philosophers, Azadpur discusses how Islamic Peripatetic thought can provide an antidote to some of modernity's philosophical problems. A discussion of the development of later Islamic Peripatetic thought is also included.

The Heavens and the Earth: Graeco-Roman, Ancient Chinese, and Mediaeval Islamic Images of the World

The Heavens and the Earth: Graeco-Roman, Ancient Chinese, and Mediaeval Islamic Images of the World
Author: Vittorio Cotesta
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 653
Release: 2021-08-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004464727

Vittorio Cotesta’s The Heavens and the Earth traces the origin of the images of the world typical of the Graeco-Roman, Ancient Chinese and Medieval Islamic civilisations. Each of them had its own peculiar way of understanding the universe, life, death, society, power, humanity and its destiny. The comparative analysis carried out here suggests that they all shared a common human aspiration despite their differences: human being is unique; differences are details which enrich its image. Today, the traditions derived from these civilisations are often in competition and conflict. Reference to a common vision of humanity as a shared universal entity should lead, instead, to a quest for understanding and dialogue.

The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy

The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy
Author: James Hankins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2007-10-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1139827480

The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy, published in 2007, provides an introduction to a complex period of change in the subject matter and practice of philosophy. The philosophy of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries is often seen as transitional between the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages and modern philosophy, but the essays collected here, by a distinguished international team of contributors, call these assumptions into question, emphasizing both the continuity with scholastic philosophy and the role of Renaissance philosophy in the emergence of modernity. They explore the ways in which the science, religion and politics of the period reflect and are reflected in its philosophical life, and they emphasize the dynamism and pluralism of a period which saw both new perspectives and enduring contributions to the history of philosophy. This will be an invaluable guide for students of philosophy, intellectual historians, and all who are interested in Renaissance thought.