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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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30M. Ullmann: Wörterbuch zu den griechisch-arabischen Übersetzungen des 9. Jahrhunderts . Pp. 904. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz Verlag, 2002. Cased, €175. ISBN: 3-447-04584- (review)The Classical Review 54 (01): 252-. 2004.
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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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29Arabic Philosophy and Theology before AvicennaIn John Marenbon (ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Medieval Philosophy, Oxford Up. pp. 58. 2011.
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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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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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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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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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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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220Before essence and existence: Al-kindi's conception of beingJournal of the History of Philosophy 40 (3): 297-312. 2002.This paper studies the first metaphysical theory in Arabic philosophy, that of al-Kindi, as found in "On First Philosophy" and other of his works. Placing these works against the background of translations produced in al-Kindi's circle (the "Theology of Aristotle," which is the Arabic version of Plotinus, and the "Liber de Causis," the Arabic version of Proclus' "Elements of Theology"), it argues that al-Kindi has two conceptions of being: "simple" being, which excludes predication and derives f…Read more
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1Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds: A History of Philosophy Wthout Any Gaps, Volume 2Oxford University Press UK. 2015.Peter Adamson offers an accessible, humorous tour through a period of eight hundred years when some of the most influential of all schools of thought were formed. He introduces us to Cynics and Skeptics, Epicureans and Stoics, emperors and slaves, and traces the development of early Christian philosophy and of ancient science. A major theme of the book is in fact the competition between pagan and Christian philosophy in this period, and the Jewish tradition appears in the shape of Philo of Alexa…Read more
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5Knowing Persons: A Study in Plato (review)International Philosophical Quarterly 45 (1): 138-140. 2005.
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10Philosophy in the Islamic Worldphilosophy in the Islamic World: Volume 1: 8th-10th Centuries (edited book)Brill. 2016.A comprehensive reference work covering all figures of the earliest period of philosophy in the Islamic world. Both major and minor thinkers are covered, with details of biography and doctrine as well as detailed lists and summaries of each author’s works.
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7Creation and the God of Abraham Edited by D. B. Burrell, C. Cogliati, J. M. Soskice, and W. R. Stoeger (review)Journal of Islamic Studies 23 (1): 89-91. 2012.
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1033Abū Bakr al-Rāzī on AnimalsArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 94 (3): 249-273. 2012.Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (d. 925), a doctor known not only for his medical expertise but also for his notorious philosophical ideas, has not yet been given due credit for his ideas on the ethical treatment of animals. This paper explores the philosophical and theological background of his remarks on animal welfare, arguing that al-Rāzī did not (as has been claimed) see animals as possessing rational, intellectual souls like those of humans. It is also argued that al-Rāzī probably did not, as is usually …Read more
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196On knowledge of particularsProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 105 (3). 2005.Avicenna's notorious claim that God knows particulars only 'in a universal way' is argued to have its roots in Aristotelian epistemology, and especially in the "Posterior Analytics". According to Avicenna and Aristotle as understood by Avicenna, there is in fact no such thing as 'knowledge' of particulars, at least not as such. Rather, a particular can only be known by subsuming it under a universal. Thus Avicenna turns out to be committed to a much more surprising epistemological thesis: even h…Read more
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34Al-Kind=IOup Usa. 2006.The first book in the Great Medieval Thinkers series to focus on an Islamic philosopher. It offers a brief, accessible introduction to the thought of the philosopher al -Kindi. His works, though brief, are of great historical importance. Al-Kindi was the first philosopher of the Islamic world. Peter Adamson will survey what is known of al-Kindi's life, examine his thought on a wide range of topics, and consider the relationship of al-Kindi's work to his Greek sources.
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