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ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: Averroes (Ibn Roshd) -- Muhammad Iqbal Averroes (Ibn Roshd) - (1126 - 1198) Main Ideas:
Important Works:
Due to a mistake made in translating the work of Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Mohammed ibn Roshd from the Arabic into Latin, this great Islamic philosopher for about two centuries deeply influenced Christian thinkers, by whom he was known under the name Averroes (picture). Averroes was a Spanish-Arab philosopher, the most noted Aristotelian scholar in Islam. Called the "commentator" by Thomas Aquinas, Averroes composed 38 treatises on the various works of Aristotle, as well as original tracts on astronomy, physics, and medicine. His primary work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence, a spirited defense of his neo-Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy. Averroes studied medicine and law, then served as a judge in Seville and later at Cordoba. In 1182 he became chief physician to the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, whose favor he enjoyed until Yusuf's death, in 1184. His religious views were considered heretical by orthodox Muslims, however, and he was banished from the court by the caliph Mansur in 1195. He was recalled from exile in 1198 but died soon after. Averroes taught that there is one eternal truth which, according to the various levels of education, can be formulated and comprehended in two ways, namely, the way of revelation, by the Koran, or the way of natural knowledge, with the aid of Aristotle and other philosophers. Averroes' philosophy represents a continuation of the Hellenizing traditions of al-Farabi and Avicenna; his commentaries on the Greek philosophers were noted for their clear analysis. Although he enjoyed a high reputation in the Muslim world of learning, he was more influential among Christian and Jewish philosophers. The guiding principle of all his writings was that philosophy and religion must agree. He viewed philosophers as prophets who teach the same principles as religious prophets but in a higher, more abstract form. He maintained on occasion that there is a double truth, and that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically untrue, and vice versa. Christian Averroism flourished in the thirteenth century, especially at the University of Paris where Siger of Brabant was the leader of that school. In 1277, Averroism was condemned by the Church. Averroes also influenced Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages. Apart from his ascendancy over Christian and Jewish philosophy, Averroes has become important as the last great philosopher of Islamic Spain, and as the last and greatest of all Arabian Aristotelians. He studied medicine and jurisprudence, and was a judge in Sevilla and Cordova. Although he was fully acquainted with the natural sciences, his approach to philosophy was determined to a great extent by his legal training. As a jurist, Averroes insisted on the literal meaning of religious and secular documents, and was eager to refute misinterpretations, particularly those which were advanced by theologians. In this way, Averroes studied, explained and annotated Aristotle whom he glorified as a "man chosen by God." The writings of Averroes survive mainly in Latin and Hebrew translations. His theories of the evolution of pre-existent froms and of the intellect anticipated modern concepts. In The Radical Academy
Muhammad Iqbal - (1873 - 1938) Main Ideas:
Important Works:
Muhammad Iqbal was born in Sialkot, Pakistan. He studied law and philosophy in Europe (1905-08) and, on his return to India, taught philosophy and literature, practiced law, and soon achieved fame as a poet. He achieved fame through his poetry, whose compelling mysticism and nationalism caused him to be regarded almost as a prophet by Muslims. The British knighted Iqbal in 1922 in recognition of his poetry. Iqbal became active in Muslim politics, serving as a member of the Punjab Legislative Council (1926-30) and president of the Muslim League (1930). One of the first to advocate a separate Muslim state in India, he has been called the spiritual father of Pakistan, where the anniversary of his death (Apr. 21, 1938) is a national holiday. His efforts to establish a separate Muslim state eventurally led to the formation of Pakistan. His prose work, The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, is one of the first modern non-polemical Muslim texts reflecting Western scholarly methodology. Most of his works are in Persian and Urdu poetry, inspired by classical Persian mystical poetry, especially that of the great Persian mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-73). Iqbal's most accomplished poem, the Persian The Secrets of the Self, is a modern reaffirmation of Islamic philosophy's widely held epistemological principle of the primacy of intuition and experience by the self-cognizant "I," or "knowledge by presence." |
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