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Averroes on divine causationIn Peter Adamson & Matteo Di Giovanni (eds.), Interpreting Averroes: Critical Essays, Cambridge University Press. 2018.
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6Al-RāzīOxford University Press. 2021.This book introduces readers to Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (known as Rhazes in Latin), one of the most innovative and divisive figures of the early philosophical tradition in the Islamic world. It attempts to reconstruct his notorious theory of "five eternals" which posited four principles alongside God for the creation of the world, which led Razi to be charged with heresy by other authors. Other topics discussed in depth include his medical works, his alchemical theories, his works on ethics, and his…Read more
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21Miskawayh on AnimalsRecherches de Theologie Et Philosophie Medievales 89 (1): 1-24. 2022.Drawing on all the extant philosophical works of Miskawayh, including his well known Refinement of Character, this paper aims to determine his attitudes towards the psychological capacities and moral standing of non-human animals. Miskawayh most often mentions animals as a contrast to the rationality of humans, but also grants animals likenesses or lesser versions of typically human traits like virtues and friendship. It is argued that for Miskawayh, the teleological design of animals gives huma…Read more
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211 The Philosophical BackgroundIn Ulrich Rudolph (ed.), Abū Naṣr Al-Fārābī: Die Prinzipien der Ansichten der Bewohner der Vortrefflichen Stadt, De Gruyter. pp. 163-176. 2022.
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36Intuition in the Avicennan traditionBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (4): 657-674. 2022.Many later thinkers in the Islamic world pick up on, and further expand, the idea of intuition (ḥads) as they react to Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā). Focusing on figures from the twelfth–thirteenth century, in this paper we will focus especially on the following points of debate: (1) Avicenna’s idea that intuition is distingiushed from normal (discursive) thought by lacking ‘motion’, (2) The question of how and why different individuals differ in the extent of their intuition, (3) The role of intuitive th…Read more
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15Medieval Philosophy: A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Volume 4Oxford University Press. 2018.Adamsom offers a lively and accessible tour through 600 years of intellectual history, offering a feast of new ideas in every area of philosophy. He introduces us to some of the greatest thinkers of the Western tradition including Abelard, Anselm, Aquinas, Hildegard of Bingen, and Julian of Norwich.
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10Philosophy Then: Evil OverruledPhilosophy Now 144 51-51. 2021.Today’s philosophers of religion devote considerable attention to the problem of evil: If God is both perfectly good and allpowerful, why do evil and suffering exist? This poses a considerable challenge to Jewish, Christian and Muslim theism, since if God is good, presumably he’d want to prevent evil and suffering, and if he’s all-powerful, presumably he’d be able to. The attempt to address this problem is called theodicy.
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Plotinus on AstrologyIn Brad Inwood (ed.), Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy Xxxv: Winter 2008, Oxford University Press. 2008.
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23Received Wisdom: The Use of Authority in Medieval Islamic PhilosophyRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 89 99-115. 2021.In this paper I challenge the notion that medieval philosophy was characterized by strict adherence to authority. In particular, I argue that to the contrary, self-consciously critical reflection on authority was a widespread intellectual virtue in the Islamic world. The contrary vice, called ‘taqlīd’, was considered appropriate only for those outside the scholarly elite. I further suggest that this idea was originally developed in the context of Islamic law and was then passed on to authors who…Read more
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12Yaḥyā Ibn ʿAdī on a Kalām Argument for CreationOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 5 (1). 2017.This article offers an analysis, translation, and edition of a brief, recently uncovered Arabic text by the tenth-century CE Christian Aristotelian thinker Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī. Ibn ʿAdī here takes issue with an argument for the existence of God, widely used in kalām. According to this argument, bodies cannot exist without being either in motion or at rest; motion and rest must begin; therefore all bodies and hence the universe as a whole must have begun. Ibn ʿAdī diagnoses various flaws in this reaso…Read more
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14Yaḥyā Ibn ʿAdī on the Location of GodOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 1 (1). 2013.This piece offers an edition, translation, and analysis of a newly discovered text by Yaḥyā Ibn ʿAdī, a leading Aristotelian of the Baghdad school in the tenth century. It briefly discusses what Aristotle meant, at the end of the Physics, by saying that the Prime Mover is “in” the outermost heaven. Ibn ʿAdī argues, in part through an exhaustive discussion of the senses of the word “in,” that God is in the sphere only in the sense that an object of intellection is in an intellect. This solution i…Read more
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6Avicenna and his Commentators on Human and Divine Self-IntellectionIn Dag Nikolaus Hasse & Amos Bertolacci (eds.), The Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Reception of Avicenna's Metaphysics, De Gruyter. pp. 97-122. 2011.
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16The Roots of Platonism: the Origins and Chief Features of a Philosophical Tradition, written by J. DillonInternational Journal of the Platonic Tradition 14 (1): 84-86. 2020.
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1Proclus’ LegacyIn Pieter D'Hoine & Marije Martijn (eds.), All From One: A Guide to Proclus, Oxford University Press Uk. 2016.This last chapter presents highlights from the history of the reception of Proclus’ thought. It starts with the reception in late antiquity and the Middle Ages, and subsequently discusses Renaissance and modernity. For the Greek tradition, the authors show how Damascius and pseudo-Dionysius adopt and adapt Proclus’ thought, and briefly touch on a Byzantine critic of Proclus: Nicholas of Methone. For the Arabic reception the authors show how the Discourse on the Pure Good adjusts Proclean metaphy…Read more
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Creighton UniversityUndergraduate
Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America