Author : Nicholas Allan Aubin
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3111325083
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (113 download)
Book Synopsis Power and Possibility in Early Arabic Philosophy by : Nicholas Allan Aubin
Download or read book Power and Possibility in Early Arabic Philosophy written by Nicholas Allan Aubin and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The world is a finite body, and therefore has finite power." John Philoponus is remembered for using this Aristotelian premise to break ranks with Aristotle and argue that the world is not everlasting. This investigation reconsiders Philoponus’s arguments from finite power, and then explores the aftermath of this line of thinking in the works of three lesser-known Arabic intellectuals active in the generation before Avicenna (d. 1037): Abū l-Ḫayr Ibn Suwār (d. after 1017), Abū al-Ḥasan al-ʿĀmirī (d. 992), and Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī (d. after 1025). Each engaged with this dictum in unique and novel ways, and in so doing anticipated a number of central features of Avicenna’s writings. The history of this argument is of crucial importance for understanding the evolution of natural philosophy and metaphysics in this formative period, away from tedious and simplistic arguments about creation and towards a more robust modal ontology based on intrinsic and extrinsic necessity.