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Life, Works, and InfluenceIn Al-Kindī, Oxford University Press. 2007.This chapter provides an overview of the evidence regarding al-Kindī’s biography, and surveys what is known of his writings based on the account in Ibn al-Nadīm’s Fihrist. While most of his works are lost, there is a significant extant corpus which is also summarized here. The chapter discusses how al-Kindī’s writings relate to the translation movement under the ’Abbāsids, which produced Arabic versions of Greek philosophical and scientific works. It concludes by considering al-Kindī’s legacy, a…Read more
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MetaphysicsIn Al-Kindī, Oxford University Press. 2007.This chapter deals with al-Kindī’s metaphysics, which in this context means theology and the idea that being is an emanation or creation from God. Depending on the Neoplatonists, especially Proclus, al-Kindī proves God’s existence by arguing for the need for a “true One”, whose absolute simplicity rules out a multiplicity of divine attributes.
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This chapter discusses al-Kindī’s main influences from Greek works produced by the translation movement, and how al-Kindī thought the ideas from these works should be put together into a coherent philosophical curriculum. In philosophy, al-Kindī was most influenced by Aristotle and by Neoplatonic works. His vision of philosophical methodology follows a Greek tradition of dividing philosophy up in terms of the different objects studied in different sciences. Finally, the chapter discusses the rol…Read more
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This chapter surveys the Greek background in Plato’s Timaeus, Aristotle’s Physics and De Caelo, and the dispute between late Greek thinkers, especially Proclus and Philoponus. Against this background, al-Kindī’s arguments that only God can be eternal and that creation must be finite in time as well as space are explored. It is suggested that al-Kindī’s interest in this topic can be explained in terms of the contemporary ’Abbāsid dogma that the Koran is not eternal, but created.
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Al-Kindī’s extant ethical corpus is relatively small, but sufficient to show that his ethics is an application of his Neoplatonic ideas about metaphysics and psychology. He provides the first Arabic account of Socrates, a philosophical hero who is presented as despising things of the physical world, or “external goods” — Socrates is here conflated with the Cynic philosopher Diogenes. In al-Kindī’s largest ethical treatise, On Dispelling Sorrows, al-Kindī provides a work of consolation which uses…Read more
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Aristotle in the Arabic Commentary TraditionIn Christopher John Shields (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle, Oxford University Press Usa. 2012.In late antiquity, the commentary became the most prominent genre of philosophical writing. Aristotle was the author who received the lion's share of attention, even though the commentators, beginning with Porphyry, were Platonists. Since Aristotle was seen not only as harmonious with Plato, but as more suitable for initial study in philosophy, commentaries for the use of students were naturally more often devoted to his works than to Plato's. The practice of writing commentaries on Aristotle, a…Read more
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29Arabic Philosophy and Theology before AvicennaIn John Marenbon (ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Medieval Philosophy, Oxford Up. pp. 58. 2011.
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2Al-Kindi and the reception of Greek philosophyIn Peter Adamson & Richard C. Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. pp. 32--51. 2004.
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6Knowing what’s good for youThe Philosophers' Magazine 53 85-90. 2011.We should see a very close connection between two fields of philosophy which are nowadays kept well apart, namely ethics and epistemology. Indeed, if the good life and virtue consist in knowledge, then the study of knowledge just is the study of ethics.
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151Vision, light and color in al-Kindi, ptolemy and the ancient commentatorsArabic Sciences and Philosophy 16 (2): 207-236. 2006.Al-Kindi was influenced by two Greek traditions in his attempts to explain vision, light and color. Most obviously, his works on optics are indebted to Euclid and, perhaps indirectly, to Ptolemy. But he also knew some works from the Aristotelian tradition that touch on the nature of color and vision. Al-Kindi explicitly rejects the Aristotelian account of vision in his De Aspectibus, and adopts a theory according to which we see by means of a visual ray emitted from the eye. But in the same work…Read more
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21Epistles of the Brethren of Purity. On Logic: an Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistles 10–14. Edited and translated by C. Baffioni (review)Journal of Islamic Studies 23 (3): 363-366. 2012.
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14Proclus' Commentary on the Cratylus in Context. Ancient Theories of Language and MeaningInternational Journal of the Platonic Tradition 3 (2): 161-164. 2009.
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77Avicenna and Aristotle R. Wisnovsky: Avicenna's metaphysics in context . Pp. XII + 305. London: Duckworth, 2003. Cased, £50. Isbn: 0-7156-3221- (review)The Classical Review 54 (02): 354-. 2004.
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47The Philosophical Works of Al-Kindi (edited book)Oup Pakistan. 2012.Al-Kindī, honoured as the 'philosopher of the Arabs', was the first philosopher of Islam. His pioneer philosophical writings engage with ideas that became available through the Graeco-Arabic translation movement. This volume makes his entire philosophical output-some two dozen works-available in English, most of them for the first time. An overall introduction, introductions to each work and extensive notes explain al-Kindī's ideas, sources, and influence
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61The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2004.Philosophy written in Arabic and in the Islamic world represents one of the great traditions of Western philosophy. Inspired by Greek philosophical works and the indigenous ideas of Islamic theology, Arabic philosophers from the ninth century onwards put forward ideas of great philosophical and historical importance. This collection of essays, by some of the leading scholars in Arabic philosophy, provides an introduction to the field by way of chapters devoted to individual thinkers or groups, e…Read more
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27Culture and Philosophy in the Age of PlotinusInternational Journal of the Platonic Tradition 2 (1): 79-81. 2008.
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26Al-Kindī, Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn IsḥāqIn H. Lagerlund (ed.), Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy, Springer. pp. 672--676. 2011.
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76Neoplatonism: The Last Ten YearsInternational Journal of the Platonic Tradition 9 (2): 205-220. 2015.
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52Al-KindiStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.Al-Kindi was the first philosopher of the Islamic world. He lived in Iraq and studied in Baghdad, where he became attached to the caliphal court. In due course he would become an important figure at court: a tutor to the caliph's son, and a central figure in the translation movement of the ninth century, which rendered much of Greek philosophy, science, and medicine into Arabic. Al-Kindi's wide-ranging intellectual interests included not only philosophy but also music, astronomy, mathematics, an…Read more
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Yahyá ibn 'Adi and Averroes on «Metaphysics» Alpha Elatton'Documenti E Studi Sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale 21 343-374. 2010.L'A. confronta due commenti su quello che nel mondo arabo viene considerato il primo libro della Metaphysica di Aristotele: alpha Elatton. Dopo averne delineato i contenuti e la penetrazione nel mondo arabo grazie alle traduzioni di Ustat e Ishaq ibn Hunayn, l'A. esamina due importanti commenti a quest'opera: Yahyá Ibn 'Adi, un commentatore cristiano della scuola di Baghdad e Averroè . I due autori leggono il testo in modo molto diverso: questo suggerisce una grande differenza tra Averroè e la s…Read more
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15Interpreting Avicenna: Critical Essays (edited book)Cambridge University Press. 2013.Avicenna is the greatest philosopher of the Islamic world. His immense impact on Christian and Jewish medieval thought, as well as on the subsequent Islamic tradition, is charted in this volume alongside studies which provide a comprehensive introduction to and analysis of his philosophy. Contributions from leading scholars address a wide range of topics including Avicenna's life and works, conception of philosophy and achievement in logic and medicine. His ideas in the main areas of philosophy,…Read more
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