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ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: Hunein Ibn Ishak -- Al-Kindi -- Al-Farabi Hunein Ibn Ishak - (809 - 873) This philosopher has been moved to THIS PAGE.
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Known as al-Arab because of his southern Arabian origins, al-Kindi served as a translator and editor of Greek philosophical works at the court of the Abbasid caliphs al-Mamun and Mutasim. He was well versed in ancient learning and devoted his life to its dissemination in all areas of Muslim culture. Al-Kindi's name was closely associated in the Middle Ages with astrology and alchemy, but in fact he was more interested in astronomy than astrology and always maintained a skeptical attitude toward alchemy. The son of a South Arabian governor, al-Kindi was given the best possible education at Basra and Baghdad. His life was spent in the service of the court as tutor, astrologer, translator and editor of many Greek philosophical works. We possess few of his writings in the original Arabic, probably because, at one time, his extensive library was temporarily confiscated. His optical and astronomical calculations were valued for centuries. He was the first to apply mathematics not only to the physical world but also to Materia Medica where he calculated the effect of medicines from the proportions and qualities represented in the various mixtures. In his philosophical and scientific writings, al-Kindi was eclectic, although he regarded Neopythagorean mathematics as the foundation of all science; and like al-Farabi, he attempted to reconcile the views of Plato and Aristotle. According to al-Kindi, revealed and natural theology (philosophy) reached the same conclusions, but he maintained that philosophy was inferior to revelation. He believed in the immortality of the individual human soul but could not give philosophical proofs for the resurrection of the body, which, he declared, was a matter of faith, not reason. From Latin translations of his works and literary activities, we learn that his eclecticism was equally characteristic of many Arab philosophers throughtout the Middle Ages. He respected Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras, but remained blind to their essential doctrinal differences. He, thus, shared the tendencies of most neo-Platonists and neo-Pythagoreans. In philosophy, he regarded God as the intelligent cause of the universe, the Greek nous, that has communicated itself from above through successive emanations of the soul to the sphere in which we live. Through this process, man became free and immortal, though his body remained subject to the influence of the stars. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On the Internet
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Born of a Turkish family, educated by a Christian physician at Baghdad, al-Farabi has been ranked with Aristotle as one of the greatest of all teachers. He was the greatest philosopher of Islam before Avicenna. He wrote commentaries on a number of Aristotelian texts and composed many original treatises on psychology, mathematics, and the occult sciences. He wrote many works on various aspects of the soul: its intellect, the unity of the soul, its substance, and many of its problems. All his thinking was characterized by an idealism bordering on mysticism. A versatile man, his chief occupation was that of philosopher, either by way of comment or original contribution. He is best known for his analyses of the Greek philosophers. Whatever he wrote was syncretistic in nature, for he sought for the compatible concepts of God, soul, time, and space among the diverse philosophies. Thus he found Plato and Aristotle in perfect accord, and historians of philosophy have ever despaired over his treatise The Harmony Between the Views of the Divine Plato and Aristotle. Al-Farabi was principally influenced by Plotinus whose belief that the materially comprehensive world emanated from God still exerts influence over Moslem scholastic thought, and by Aristotle who assumed there was a Prime Mover of the universe and therefore the world had no beginning in time, that time is relative to motion and could not have preceded God, who himself was the first mover. In both his commentaries and original compositions, al-Farabi attempted to demonstrate the unity of Plato and Aristotle and to prove the primacy of philosophy. He maintained that, in contrast to philosophy, religion represents the truth in a symbolic form for nonphilosophers. In all his writings, which reveal the influence of a mystical neo-Platonism, he attempted to reconcile Islam with philosophy. Al-Farabi was not only a great philosopher but also a noted musicologist. Dervishes in the East can still be heard singing the chants he composed. He was also a Utopian whose The Opinion of the People of the Virtuous City envisioned his desires for the heavenly on this earth. In The Radical Academy
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