Al-Kindī’s treatise on definitions and its place in history of philosophy

• Authors: Stefaniuk, Tomasz

Abstracts

EN

The paper focuses on al-Kindī’s Treatise on definitions - the oldest surviving Arabic glossary of philosophical and scientific terms. Its author presents more than one definition of the term falsafa (philosophy). Does this mean that he was not sure how to explain to his coreligionists what philosophy really is? In this article I aim to focus on the content of all six definitions of philosophy presented in the treatise. I also compare some of al-Kindī’s definitions of philosophy with the way in which some Greek philosophers, known to him, understood it, as well as with certain ideas derived from the source texts of Islam. The results of the study led to the belief that al-Kindī sought to induce his readers to agree that philosophy was not a threat to the Muslim faith, but rather a science which aims to improve man in the moral sense, and also to significantly increase the human knowledge of the world created by God.

Keywords

EN

Philosophy; history of philosophy; Islam; al-Kindi; falsafa; translation movement

• Publisher: Bialystok University Press
• Journal: IDEA. Studia nad strukturą i rozwojem pojęć filozoficznych
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 29/1

Dates

published

2017

Contributors

author

Stefaniuk, Tomasz

References

• Abū Riḍā M. (ed.), Rasāʾil al-Kindī al-falsafiīa, Cairo 1950.
• Adamson P., Pormann P. E., The Philosophical Works of Al-Kindī, Karachi 2012.
• Afnan S. M., Philosophical Terminology in Arabic and Persian, Leiden 1964.
• Annas J., Platonic Ethics. Old and New, London 1999.
• Armstrong J. M., After the Ascent: Plato on Becoming Like God, in: “Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy”, 27 (2004).
• Banchetti-Robino M. P., The Microcoms/Macrocosm Analogy in Ibn Sīnā and Husserl, in: A.-T. Tymieniecka (ed.), Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perrenial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm, Dordrecht 2006.
• Burnyeat M. F., The Theaetetus of Plato, Indianapolis 1990.
• Corbin H., History of Islamic Philosophy, London 2006.
• Corbin H., Histoire de la philosophie islamique, Paris 1986.
• D’Alverny M.-Th., F. Hudry, Al-Kindi. De Radiis, in; “Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge”, 61 (1974).
• Dodge B., The Fihrist of Al-Nadim. A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, New York 1970.
• Dombrowski D., A Platonic Philosophy of Religion, New York 2012, p. 103.
• El-Ehwany A. F., Al-Kindi, in: M. M. Sharif (ed.), A History of Muslim Philosophy – With Short Accounts of Other Disciplines and the Modern Renaissance in Muslim Lands, Wiesbaden 1963.
• Endress G., Kindi, Al-, Philosopher, in: J. W. Meri(ed.), Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, New York 2005.
• Erler M., Epicurus as Deus Mortalis. Homoiosis Theoi and Epicurean Self-Cultivation, in: D. Frede, A. Laks (eds.), Traditions of Theology: Studies in Hellenistic Theology, Its Background and Aftermath, Leiden 2002.
• Frank D. H., O. Leaman, The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy, Cambridge 2003.
• Gill C. (ed.), Marcus Aurelius: Meditations, Oxford 2013.
• Gutas D., Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/5th-10th c.), London 1998.
• Haney K., Improvisation in the Dance of Life: the Microcosm and the Macrosoms, in: Tymieniecka (ed.), Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perrenial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm.
• Ibn al-Nadim M., Kitab al-fihrist, in: G. Flügel (ed.), Kitab al-Fihrist mit Anmerkungen herausgegeben, Leipzig 1872.
• Irwin T., Classical Philosophy: Aristotle: Metaphysics, Epistemology, Natural Philosophy, in: T. Irwin (ed.), Classical Philosophy: Collected Papers, vol. VIII, New York 1995.
• Ivry A., Al-Kindi’s Metaphisics, Albany 1974.
• Janssens J., Al-Kindī: The Founder of Philosophical Exegesis of the Qur’an, in: “Journal of Qur’anic Studies”, 9.2 (2007).
• Johnson C. N., Philosophy and Politics in Aristotle’s Politics, New York 2015.
• Al-Jubouri I. M. N., History of Islamic Philosophy: With View of Greek Philosophy and Early History of Islam, Hertford 2004.
• Al-Kadit I., Origins of Cryptology: The Arab Contributions, in: “Cryptologia”, 16/2 (1992).
• Kennedy-Day K., Limits of the Words, London 2003.
• Kosman A., Aristotle’s Definition of Motion, in: L. P. Gerson (ed.), Aristotle. Logic and Metaphysics, New York 1999.
• Leaman O. (ed.), The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy, London 2015.
• Meri J. W. (ed.), Medieval Islamic Civilization, vol. II, New York 2006.
• Muradyan G. (ed.), David the Invincible. Commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge, Leiden 2014.
• Reisman D., Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources, Indianapolis 2007.
• Sandy G., The Greek World of Apuleius: Apuleius and the Second Sophistic, Leiden 1997.
• Santas G., Understanding Plato's Republic, Malden 2010.
• Spruit L., Species Intelligibilis. 1. Classical Roots and Medieval Discussions, Leiden 1994.
• Stern S. M., Notes on Al-Kindī's Treatise on Definitions, “The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland”, 1/2 (1959).
• Watt W. M., Islamic Philosophy and Theology. An Extended Survey, Edinburgh 1985.
• Zagzebski L., The Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction, Oxford 2007.

Identifiers

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/11320/6658

DOI

10.15290/idea.2017.29.1.18