•  865
    Abū Bakr al-Rāzī on Animals
    Archiv 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
  •  260
    The Arabic Sea Battle: al-Fārābī on the Problem of Future Contingents
    Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 88 (2): 163-188. 2006.
    Ancient commentators like Ammonius and Boethius tried to solve Aristotle's “sea battle argument” in On Interpretation 9 by saying that statements about future contingents are “indefinitely” true or false. They were followed by al-Fārābī in his commentary on On Interpretation. The article sets out two possible interpretations of what “indefinitely” means here, and shows that al-Fārābī actually has both conceptions: one applied in his interpretation of Aristotle, and another that he is forced into…Read more
  •  244
    Al-kindī and the mu‘tazila: Divine attributes, creation and freedom: Peter Adamson
    Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 13 (1): 45-77. 2003.
    The paper discusses al-Kindī's response to doctrines held by contemporary theologians of the Mu‘tazilite school: divine attributes, creation, and freedom. In the first section it is argued that, despite his broadly negative theology, al-Kindī recognizes a special kind of “essential” positive attribute belonging to God. The second section argues that al-Kindī agreed with the Mu‘tazila in holding that something may not yet exist but still be an object of God's knowledge and power…Read more
  •  219
    Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life
    Mind 112 (446): 363-366. 2003.
  •  207
    Before essence and existence: Al-kindi's conception of being
    Journal 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
  •  186
    On knowledge of particulars
    Proceedings 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
  •  145
    Vision, light and color in al-Kindi, ptolemy and the ancient commentators
    Arabic 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
  •  123
    The Thought Experimental Method: Avicenna's Flying Man Argument
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association 4 (2): 147-164. 2018.
    No argument from the Arabic philosophical tradition has received more scholarly attention than Avicenna's ‘flying man’ thought experiment, in which a human is created out of thin air and is able to grasp his existence without grasping that he has a body. This paper offers a new interpretation of the version of this thought experiment found at the end of the first chapter of Avicenna's treatment of soul in theHealing. We argue that it needs to be understood in light of an epistemological theory s…Read more
  •  100
    The theology of Aristotle
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.
  •  93
    The 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
  •  91
    In 43 lively chapters Peter Adamson tells the story of philosophy from its beginnings to Plato and Aristotle. Most histories jump from one famous name to another, but Adamson shows that the people and ideas in between, usually overlooked, are fascinating and significant. Based on his popular podcasts, this is serious history with a light touch
  •  90
    Neoplatonism (review)
    Phronesis: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy 57 (4): 380-399. 2012.
  •  76
    The simplicity of self-knowledge after Avicenna
    Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 28 (2): 257-277. 2018.
    Alongside his much-discussed theory that humans are permanently, if only tacitly, self-aware, Avicenna proposed that in actively conscious self-knowers the subject and object of thought are identical. He applies to both humans and God the slogan that the self-knower is “intellect, intellecting, and object of intellection (‘aql, ‘āqil, ma‘qūl)”. This paper examines reactions to this idea in the Islamic East from the 12th-13th centuries. A wide range of philosophers such as Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdā…Read more
  •  69
    Xi *-on knowledge of particulars
    Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 105 (3): 273-294. 2005.
  •  62
    Neoplatonism: The Last Ten Years
    International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 9 (2): 205-220. 2015.
  •  58
    Knowing what’s good for you
    The Philosophers' Magazine 53 (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.
  •  58
    This article offers an analysis of the argumentative method of two treatises by Alexander of Aphrodisias, On Fate and On Providence, the latter of which is preserved only in Arabic translation. It is argued that both texts use techniques from Aristotelian dialectic, albeit in different ways, with On Fate adhering to methods outlined in Aristotle's Topics whereas On Providence uses the ‘aporetic’ method familiar from texts such as MetaphysicsΒ‎. This represents a revision of a previous study of A…Read more
  •  55
    Plotinus' cosmology. A study of ennead II.1 (40). Text, translation and commentary
    International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 2 (2): 219-223. 2008.
  •  54
    Al-Kindī
    Oxford University Press. 2007.
    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
  •  51
    I—Memory from Plato to Damascius
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 93 (1): 161-184. 2019.
    Taking its cue from a passage in which the late pagan Neoplatonist Damascius criticizes his predecessor Proclus, this paper explores the way that ancient philosophers understood the soul’s access to its own tacit contents through the power of memory. Late ancient discussions of this issue respond to a range of passages in Plato and to Aristotle’s On Memory. After a survey of this material it is shown that for Damascius, but not Proclus, memory requires a distinction between the subject and objec…Read more
  •  49
    Miskawayh on pleasure
    Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 25 (2): 199-223. 2015.
    RésuméCet article propose une analyse et une traduction d'un ouvrage de Miskawayh déjà édité mais non étudié par ailleurs, et intitulé Des plaisirs et des douleurs. Après une étude préliminaire concernant la doctrine aristotélicienne du plaisir dans l‘Éthique à Nicomaque, qui est la principale source de Miskawayh, la doctrine du plaisir présentée dans le traité Des plaisirs et des douleurs est comparée à la discussion du plaisir dans l'ouvrage mieux connu de Miskawayh La réforme des mœurs. En dé…Read more
  •  48
    All for one, or one for all?
    with Carmen Paradis and Martin L. Smith
    Hastings Center Report 37 (4): 13-15. 2007.
  •  48
    Abū Ma'šar, al-Kindī and the Philosophical Defense of Astrology
    Recherches de Theologie Et Philosophie Medievales 69 (2): 245-270. 2002.
    This paper explores the philosophical aspects of the "Great Introduction" of Abū Ma'šar, one of the great figures of Arabic astrology and an associate of al-Kindī, the great 9th century philosopher. I argue that the following points of philosophical interest may be found in this text: 1. Astrology is described as a "master science" along the lines proposed by Aristotle, i.e. it provides principles for lower sciences. Also he supplies arguments to ground astrology on methodological grounds, such …Read more
  •  47
    Al-Kindi
    Stanford 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
  •  44
    Fakhr al-dīn al-rāzī on place
    Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 27 (2): 205-236. 2017.
    The twelfth century philosopher-theologian Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī is well known for his critique of Avicennan metaphysics. In this paper, I examine his critique of Avicenna's physics, and in particular his rejection of the Avicennan and Aristotelian theory of place as the inner boundary of a containing body. Instead, Fakhr al-Dīn defends a definition of place as self-subsisting extension, an idea explicitly rejected by Aristotle and Avicenna after him. Especially in his late work, theMaṭālib, Fakh…Read more
  •  42
    The Philosophical Works of Al-Kindi (edited book)
    with Peter E. Pormann
    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
  •  38
    Avicenna And Aristotle (review)
    The Classical Review 54 (2): 354-356. 2004.
  •  35
    The so-called "Theology of Aristotle" is a translation of the Enneads of Plotinus, the most important representative of late ancient Platonism. It was produced in the 9th century CE within the circle of al-Kindī, one of the most important groups for the early reception of Greek thought in Arabic. In part because the "Theology" was erroneously transmitted under Aristotle's authorship, it became the single most important conduit by which Neoplatonism reached the Islamic world. It is referred to by…Read more