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Arabic Thought and Its Place in History

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 Excerpt: ... treatises " On the soul," " On the power of the soul," "On the unity and the one," and " On the intelligence and the intelligible," some of which afterwards circulated in mediaeval Latin translations, which continued to be reprinted well into the 17th century (e.g., De intelligentia et de intelligibili. Paris, 1638). In metaphysics he wrote essays on "Substance," "Time," "Space and Measure," and "Vacuum." In mathematics he wrote a commentary on the Almajesta of Ptolemy, and a treatise on various problems in Euclid. He was a staunch upholder of the neo-Platonic theory that the teaching of Aristotle and that of Plato are essentially in accord and differ only in superficial details and modes of expression; he wrote treatises " On the agreement between Plato and Aristotle " and on " The object before Plato and Aristotle." In essays "Against Galen" and "Against John Philoponus" he criticised the views of those commentators, and endeavoured to defend the orthodoxy of Aristotle by making them responsible for apparent discrepancies with the teaching of revelation. He was interested also in the occult sciences, as appears from his treatises " On geomancy," "On the Jinn," and "On dreams." His chemical treatise called kimiya t-Tabish, "the chemistry of things heated," has been classed as a work on natural science and also as a treatise on magic; this was the unfortunate direction which Arabic chemistry was taking. He also wrote several works on music. (Cf. Schmolders: Documenta Philos. Arab. Bonn., 1836, for Latin versions of select treatises). As we have already noted, his primary importance was as a teacher ...

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

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De Lacy O'Leary

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Profile Image for Ahmed Yousri ataweyya.
722 reviews40 followers
February 17, 2022
بداية الكتاب كانت جيدة
لكن بعد ذلك يوجد ارتباك شديد و اعتقد ان السبب هو الترجمة.
Profile Image for Pierfrancesco Aiello.
65 reviews10 followers
October 5, 2014
A nice overview about arabic contributions in philosophy. Unfortunately mainly metaphysics and theology related to few, even if important, topics. A lot of other topics (for example engineering) regarding critical thinking are almost ignored.
Profile Image for محمد الساكت.
Author 13 books17 followers
October 8, 2025
الكتاب مليء بالأشواك والمغالطات التاريخية والتدليس المتعمد من المؤلف، وقد دأب المؤلف ونحا نحو المستشرقين المتعصبين ضد الإسلام والمسلمين. وأثمن دور المترجم أنه بيَّن ذلك في مقدمته، وأشار إلى أنه قد أوضح تلك المغالطات والتدليس في حاشية الكتاب. وقد افترى المؤلف على التصوف الإسلامي افتراءات عظيمًا، وألبسه ثياب الرهبانية المسيحية بأساليب استشراقية ملتوية. ويعيب الكتاب أنه من بعد النص الثاني من الكتاب نجد أن الترجمة تنحدر وتلبس ثياب الترجمة التي تحتاج إلى ترجمة أخرى لإيضاح المعنى المراد.
Profile Image for Edward.
108 reviews9 followers
October 23, 2011
A good place to get the basics on the origins and development of classical Middle Eastern philosophy.
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