Medieval Philosophy
Medieval philosophy arose in 5th century CE when Western Roman Empire declined and continued until Renaissance in 16th century CE.
Medieval philosophy was dominated by Abrahamic traditions and was mostly applied to interpret the scriptures. Islamic Philosophy, Jewish philosophy, and Christian philosophy developed during this period.
Although Hellenistic philosophy had demised, Abbasid Caliphate (750 – 1258 CE) based in Baghdad, Iraq, authorized the collection and translation of Greek Philosophical manuscripts.
Islamic philosophers such as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, and Ibn Rushd reinterpreted these works, and during the High Middle Ages Greek philosophy re-entered the West through translations from Arabic to Latin.
The re-introduction of these philosophies, accompanied with commentaries in Arabic, had a great influence on Jewish and Christian Medieval philosophers, such as, Mohse ben Maimon and Thomas Aquinas.
Al-Kindi (Alkindus, 801-873 CE)
Al-Kindi was born in Basra and educated in Baghdad.
He was a philosopher, polymath, mathematician, physician and musician.
A number of Abbasid Caliphs appointed him to oversee the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts into the Arabic language.
Al-Farabi (Alpharabius, 872-950 CE)
Al-Farabi was born in Afghanistan and died in Damascus.
He was a renowned philosopher and jurist who wrote in the fields of political philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and logic.
He was also a scientist, cosmologist, mathematician and music scholar.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037 CE)
Ibn Sina’s latin name was Avicenna. He was a Persian polymath who is considered as an influential thinker and writer of the Islamic Golden Age in which the translations of Greco-Roman, Persian, and Indian texts were studied extensively.
Greco-Roman (Mid and Neo-Platonic, and Aristotelian) texts translated by the Kindi school were commented, redacted and developed substantially. His corpus includes writings on philosophy, medicine, astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry.
His most famous works are The Book of Healing – a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine – a medical encyclopedia which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650. In 1973, Avicenna’s Canon Of Medicine was reprinted in New York.
Al-Ghazali (1058-1111 CE)
Al-Ghazali was a Muslim theologian, philosopher, jurist, and mystic of Persian origin.
He is considered to be the most influential Muslim intellectual and Mujaddid or renewer of faith.
He criticized and rejected Aristotle and Plato. His book Incoherence of the Philosophers marks a major turn in Islamic epistemology. The book refers to the philosophical works of Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina who drew upon the Greek philosophies.
One of the other major works by al-Ghazali’s is Ihya’ Ulum al-Din or Ihya’u Ulumiddin (The Revival of Religious Sciences). It covers almost all fields of Islamic sciences, such as, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), kalam (theology) and sufism. It contains four major sections: Acts of worship (Rub’ al-‘ibadat), Norms of Daily Life (Rub’ al-‘adatat), The ways to Perdition (Rub’ al-muhlikat) and The Ways to Salvation (Rub’ al-munjiyat).
Ibn Rushd (Averroes, 1126-1198 CE)
Ibn Rush latinized as Averroes was born in Cordoba, Spain, and died in Marrakesh, Morocco.
He was a polymath and wrote on logic, Aristotelian and Islamic philosophy, theology, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, psychology, politics, Andalusian classical music theory, geography, mathematics, and the medieval sciences of medicine, astronomy, physics and celestial mechanics.
Ibn Rushd was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against Ash’ari (traditionalist) theologians led by Al-Ghazali. Although highly regarded as a legal scholar of the Maliki school of Islamic law, Ibn Rushd’s philosophical ideas were considered controversial in Ash’arite Muslim circles.
His philosophical work was The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahafut al-tahafut), defends Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali’s claims in The Incoherence of the Philosophers.
Ibn Rushd had a greater impact on Christian Europe and he has been described as the “founding father of secular thought in Western Europe. Latin translations of Ibn Rushd’s work led the way to the popularization of Aristotle.
Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides, 1135-1204 CE)
Moshe ben Maimon latinized Moses Maimonides was born in Cordova, Spain, and passed away in Egypt.
He worked as a rabbi and physician in Morocco and Egypt. He was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer and a prolific Torah scholar.
He read Greek philosophy accessible in Arabic translations and was influenced by Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and his contemporary Al Rushd. He was deeply immersed in the sciences and learning of Islamic culture. He became a prominent philosopher and polymath in both Jewish and Islamic world.
Moshe ben Maimon had an influence on Christian theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas referred him in many of his works, including, the Commentary on the Sentences.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE)
Thomas Aquinas was an Italian Dominican friar, Catholic priest and Doctor of the Church (title given by Catholic Church to a saint).
He was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist. His influence on the Western thought is considerable and modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics and political theory.
He embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity.
