Averroes’ Natural Philosophy and its Reception in the Latin West

The impact of Averroes’ natural philosophy on the history of philosophy and science.

Ibn Rushd (1126–1198) or Averroes, is widely known as the unrivalled commentator on virtually all works by Aristotle. His commentaries and treatises were used as manuals for understanding Aristotelian philosophy until the Age of the Enlightenment. Both Averroes and the movement commonly known as ‘Latin Averroism’ have attracted considerable attention from historians of philosophy and science. Whereas most studies focus on Averroes’ psychology, particularly on his doctrine of the ‘unity of the intellect’, Averroes’ natural philosophy as a whole and its influence still remain largely unexplored. This volume aims to fill the gap by studying various aspects of Averroes’ natural philosophical thought, in order to evaluate its impact on the history of philosophy and science between the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

 Contributors: Jean-Baptiste Brenet (Université de Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne), Cristina Cerami (cnrs, umr 7219: sphere/chspam), Silvia Donati (Albertus-Magnus-Institut, Bonn), Dag Nikolaus Hasse (Julius-Maximilians- Universität Würzburg), Craig Martin (Oakland University), Edith Dudley Sylla (North Carolina State University), Cecilia Trifogli (All Souls College, Oxford)

Format: Edited volume - ebook - PDF

272 pages

ISBN: 9789461661906

Publication: November 17, 2015

Series: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy - Series 1 50

Languages: English | French

Het geheel van deze zeven bijdragen biedt ontegensprekelijk heel wat vernieuwende visies op een aantal natuurfilosofische inzichten van Averroës, met een bijzondere aandacht voor de receptie ervan in het Latijnse Westen. Het niveau van deze bundel steekt duidelijk boven het gemiddelde van gelijkaardige verzamelwerken uit. We hopen dan ook dat hij de aandacht zal krijgen die hij verdient.
Jules Janssens, Tijdschrift voor Filosofie, 80/2018, doi: 10.2143/TVF.80.3.3285689

 
These are all very high-quality essays, each brimming with subtle insights into the way that themes and philosophical puzzles in Aristotle were framed in Averroes’s works through the lens of late antique commentary, and how the Latin scholastics then furthered the agenda through their own creative work as well as further comparisons with other eminent philosophers of the likes of Augustine and Avicenna.
Taneli Kukkonen, Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 56 number 3 (July 2018)

  Journal of the History of Philosophy

Considered as a whole, the articles in this volume provide us with a better and deeper understanding of the reception of Averroes' natural philosophy in the Latin West by means of examining topics which are usually not common in current academic discussion, either by choosing a new focal point or by the selection of authors commenting on Averroes. If anything is missing, then it would be an article explaining what is natural philosophy, since this tends to be identified with physics. However, by including psychology the reader can get the idea of the wide range of topics covered under the label "natural philosophy" in the Middle Ages.
Pilar Herráiz Oliva, The Medieval Review, 17-01-01