Biography of Averroes

Diffuse knowledge

Year of birth: 1126 10 December 1198 Averroës was born in Cordova in 1126, with the Arabic name of Abu I-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Muhammad Ibn Rush (which in the middle ages will become first Aven Roshd and then Averroes), into a family of famous lawyers belonging to the Maliki school: both Abd al-Qasim Ahmad, his father Abd al-Walid Muhammad, his grandfather, were gadi (IE local authority which has the task of administering justice). Education and educational Averroes is classic: after studying the hadith, i.e. traditional tales that are traced to Muhammad, he continues with theology and jurisprudence, even following the teachings of Avempace (according to historians, in fact, is not completely ruled out the hypothesis that between the two there has been a strong collaboration). Become a lawyer, doctor and philosopher, is appointed gadi, first in Seville and Cordova. Famous remains his encyclopedia of medicine, but among his writings include several philosophical works and interesting comments on Aristotelian thought. Averroes stays in Marrakesh during the reign of Abd al-Mumin, at a time in history when the Almoravids are expanding considerably from a military point of view and even religious. Their faith, in particular, is characterized by very strict obedience to the Qur'an, rather severe and Formalisms for Sunna, i.e. the set of codes of conduct. As regards his philosophical thought, the most important work of Averroes Tahafut al-tahafut is without a doubt "," become in Latin "Destructio destructionis philosophorum", and then in Italian "the incoherence of the incoherence". In this text, the Arab thinker defends Aristotelian philosophy, entering at odds notably with the Tahafut al-falasifa "criticism in the Treaty" ("Destructio philosophorum" meaning "the incoherence of the philosophers") from al-Ghazali, who believed that philosophy and Aristotelian thought in particular, cannot be compatible with Islam. Completely opposite, however, is the thought of Averroes, who believes it is possible to reach the truth either by speculative philosophy and through religion. He, however, he was forced into exile during the wave of religious fanaticism that at the end of the 1100 hits al-Andalus: kept under tight control until his death, must suffer the destruction by the censorship, of many of his works on metaphysics and logic. With the death of Averroes, which took place on 10 December in Marrakesh 1198, concludes the era of liberal culture in Islam Spanish. What remains of the jurist and philosopher is, however, his thought, very close to the Greek works though he did not know the language: he could approach the Aristotelian texts, therefore, only through Arab translations carried out by Syriac Christians. From a historical perspective, the importance of Averroes's tracked in comments and translations which he set out about the thought of Aristotle, which at that time had been virtually forgotten throughout the West. In essence, then, is due to Averroes, and its translations into Latin, the recovery took place in Europe in the Aristotelian tradition, which occurred in those years. The same Thomas Aquinas, who also expressed in contrast to various doctrines of his time (very represented in Parisian academic environment), owes much to Averroes, and in common with him has a fundamental reappraisal of the works of Aristotle. According to Averroes, there was no conflict between philosophy and religion, because the differences that could possibly be traced were due only to different interpretations, or to different routes traveled to get to the same truth: the way philosophical, destined to a small circle of intellectuals capable to study particularly complicated; and the way religion, based on faith, which can be understood by everyone as it does not require special training. According to Averroes, the philosophers are allowed to study religion through the instruments of reason, and there is no Islamic ban in this regard. Averroes's works, including the book "Kitab al-Kashf" (which is explicitly criticized asharite theological school founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari) and Kitab fasl al-Maqal "" (which supports the work of investigation of philosophers, absolutely no bearer of unbelief and blasphemy), were translated in the 13th century by Jacob Anatoli in Hebrew, influencing greatly on Jewish philosophy up to Spinoza. With regard to religious thought, the most important book of Averroes was undoubtedly "Al-manahij al-adilla fi Kashf an atomized al-milla", in which were made in the analysis period to assess its creeds correctness and authenticity in terms of the legislator. In particular, the philosopher he concentrated on the question of God's existence, and the opportunities that the man had to inform yourself. An initial argument identified was that of Providence, for which all objects in the universe are somehow in the service of humanity: so you can identify God as a perfect creator; the second argument, instead, concerned the inventions of all elements of the universe, designed by God in a non-random. In terms of cosmology, Averroes emphasised the difference between eternal work, which does not allow time slices, and human work, which can take rest breaks. The world is, according to the philosopher, a category of existence, and is marked by a case officer who leads his life. As part of a triple vision of the cosmos, one distinguishes the case agent, of divine origin, the physical world and the heavenly bodies. Averroes, then intervened also in psychology, describing the intellect which a substance incorporeal and eternal, that can be distinguished in the passive intellect and agent intellect: the first, connected with the senses; the second, related to humans through an eternal material reason. As said, we experienced also in the field of medicine, with the work "Kitab al-Kulliyyat fi al-Tibb", which was for a long time the best known medical text, as well as by Muslims, even by Jews and Christians: they were dealt with, among other things, issues such as the autopsy and dissection, practices do not condemn but rather enhanced, because the anatomy, if designed for scientific purposes, does nothing but nourish faith in God. The thought of Averroes, finally, had important influence even in physics, since he was the first scholar to define the force as the work required to change the status of a material; He had insights also about friction, amending the force that you apply in the kinetic, and of what Kepler would later called inertia.
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