The twelfth-century Andalusian philosopher Averroes sought to understand the divine in a way independent of religious theology, by turning to the philosophical works of Aristotle and, to a lesser extent, Plato. In doing so, he established standards of scientific inquiry into God that were and remain highly influential on Jewish and Christian thought. Averroes, however, does not provide much in the way of demonstrative knowledge of God, and most of his arguments remain dialectical, rhetorical, or political. This volume explores the various pathways towards attaining divine knowledge that we find in Averroes’ commentaries on Aristotle’s De Anima, Metaphysics, and Nicomachean Ethics, and on Plato’s Republic, along with Averroes’ Epistle on Divine Knowledge, Decisive Treatise, and more.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Averroes on Intentionality and the Human Experience of the Natural World
2. Averroes’s Epistle on Divine Knowledge as a Dialectical Work: Between Forbidden Interpretation and Philosophical Training
3. Dialecticians and Dialectics in Averroes’s Long Commentary on Gamma 2 of Aristotle’s Metaphysics
4. The Hierarchy of Terms in the Short Commentary on Metaphysics Δ
5. Averroes’s Rewrite of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Δ: Establishing the Plain Meaning of the Text in the Midde Commentary
6. Losing Focus: Notes on Averroes’s Introduction to Aristotle’s Metaphysics Δ in the Long Commentary
7. Happiness, Eros, and the Active Intellect: Understanding Erotic Desire in Averroes’s Long Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics Λ in light of the Middle Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics
8. Expelling Dialectics from the Ideal State: Making the World Safe for Philosophy in Averroes’s Commentary on Plato’s “Republic”
Height:
Width:
Spine:
Weight:0.00