"In one fashion or another, the question with which this introduction begins is a question for every serious reader of Plato's Republic : Of what use is this philosophy to me? Averroes clearly finds that the Republic speaks to his own time and to his own situation.... Perhaps the greatest use he makes of the Republic is to understand better the shari'a itself.... It is fair to say that in deciding to paraphrase the Republic, Averroes is asserting that his world—the (...) world defined and governed by the Koran—can profit from Plato's instruction."—from Ralph Lerner’s IntroductionAn indispensable primary source in medieval political philosophy is presented here in a fully annotated translation of the celebrated discussion of the Republic by the twelfth-century Andalusian Muslim philosopher, Abu'l-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd, also know by his his Latinized name, Averroes. This work played a major role in both the transmission and the adaptation of the Platonic tradition in the West. In a closely argued critical introduction, Ralph Lerner addresses several of the most important problems raised by the work. (shrink)

v. 1. Arabic text -- v. 2. English translation.

This chapter contains sections titled: Background, Sources Tradition Biography Teachings Conclusions.

What is an event? From a philosophical perspective, events are irregular occurrences--moments of change and interruption--categorized by human perception, language, and thought. While philosophers have pored over this subject extensively in recent years, The Event: Literature and Theory seeks to ground it: What is literature's approach to the event? How does literature produce and give testimony to events? Ilai Rowner's study not only revisits some of the most important thinkers of our time, including Maurice Blanchot, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, (...) and Martin Heidegger, it also develops a critical approach to literature that questions the meaning of the literary event through examinations of literary works by Marcel Proust, Louis-Ferdinand Ce;line, and T. S. Eliot. Rowner offers a new method of thinking about the particular characteristics of the event within literary works and defines the creative value of literature as the aspiration toward the un-happening within the happening. In this study the experience of literature--as an act of both writing and reading--becomes the struggle to capture the excessive movement of the event while yet revealing the creative energy within the work of literature. (shrink)

This book contains the first English translation of Abūl-Walīd Ibn Rushd's (Averroes') so-called Epitome of Aristotle's Metaphysics. The original Arabic text was composed around 1160 as a sort of appendix to a series of compendia of Aristotle's works on natural philosophy by the famous Andalusian philosopher. The two most interesting things about this work are the fact that Averroes restructures here the Aristotelian text according to his own conception of metaphysics, as opposed to his great literal commentary which follows the (...) order of the Metaphysics section by section, and that he constantly revised this work over more than three decades. The present translation is based on a wide range of documents including, apart from the available Arabic editions, a number of medieval Arabic manuscripts not taken into consideration in these editions as well as the Renaissance translation into Latin prepared by Jacob Mantinus. It is accompanied by a commentary dealing with the major philosophical topics, Averroes' sources and problems of the transmission and constitution of the text. In addition, the most important variant readings of the manuscripts are noted in footnotes underneath the translation. (shrink)

Averroës, the greatest Aristotelian of the Islamic philosophical tradition, composed some thirty-eight commentaries on the "First Teacher's" corpus, including three separate treatments of De Anima : the works commonly referred to as the Short, Middle, and Long Commentaries. The Middle Commentary--actually Averroës's last writing on the text-remains one of his most refined and politically discreet treatments of Aristotle, offering modern readers Averroës's final statement on the material intellect and conjunction as well as an accessible historical window on (...) Aristotle's work as it was interpreted and transmitted in the medieval period. (shrink)

"An indispensable primary source in medieval political philosophy is presented here in a fully annotated translation of Averroes' discussion of the Republic. Averroes' book played a major role in both the transmission and the adaptation of the Platonic tradition in the West."--Goodreads.

The book and its title -- Averroes' life and works -- The meaning of Averroes' work -- Being and language in the Decisive Treatise -- A sociology of language -- Averroes, the double truth and his heritage -- The Decisive Treatise on the connection between Islamic religious law and philosophy.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Averroès, musulman andalou du XIIe siècle, discute le " De anima " d'Aristote dans une approche rationalisante du rapport entre religion et philosophie, entre étude de la vérité révélée et surnaturelle, et étude démonstrative de l'univers. La béatitude spirituelle de l'homme est décrite dans le Coran. En philosophie, elle serait l'union de son intellect à l'intellect agent universel.

Ce volume inaugure l'édition française de l'ensemble de l'activité exégétique d'Averroès sur la somme logique qu'est l' " Organon " aristotélicien. On trouvera, accompagnées de l'annotation essentielle, les oeuvres d'Averroès sur le traité " De l'interprétation ", où Aristote établit la doctrine de la proposition simple et de ses éléments constitutifs.

La traduction arabo-latine attribuee a Guillaume de Luna du commentaire moyen d'Averroes sur la Logica vetus a fait l'objet en 1996 d'un premier volume: curieusement peut-etre, il proposait l'edition du texte de la troisieme uvre concernee, le Peri Hermeneias ou De interpretatione. Le present volume poursuit l'edition dudit commentaire dans la meme traduction arabo-latine et porte, non sur la premiere uvre de la trilogie: l'Isagoge, mais sur la deuxieme: les Categories ou Predicaments. A peine impliquee dans des citations d'auteurs, l'oeuvre (...) n'est plus connue que par six manuscrits; s' y ajoutent douze editions des XVe et XVIe siecles. La presente edition ressemble a la precedente du commentaire du Peri Hermeneias au moins sous quatre rapports: 1. une comparaison systematique de la version latine medievale du commentaire d'Averroes avec la version hebraique correspondante a ete exclue, ces deux versions ne pouvant etre qu'independantes l'une de l'autre; 2. dans l'apparat comparatif de la version latine avec l'original arabe, les mots arabes sont imprimes en arabe, puis retraduits en latin dans la langue meme du traducteur, sur base d'une etude systematique de la terminologie utilisee dans la traduction; 3. les lexiques sur lesquels s'appuie cette etude de la terminologie, rendent compte d'a peu pres toutes les equivalences arabo-latines etablies par le traducteur, et non, parmi celles-ci, d'une categorie particuliere ne reprenant, par exemple, que les concepts philosophiques; 4. dans les lexiques, les mots arabes sont transcrits en caracteres latins: certaines verifications sont ainsi accessibles aux lecteurs non arabisants; quant aux arabisants, la vocalisation qu'implique la transcription leur signale comment, en fonction de l'interpretation supposee avoir ete celle du traducteur medieval, le referent arabe a de nouveau ete relu et compris. (shrink)

Né à Cordoue en 1126, mort en 1198, Ibn Rusd (Averroès), juge, médecin et philosophe andalou, a laissé une œuvre considérable : outre des traités polémiques (contre Galien, contre al-Gazâli) et de nombreux essais, il a consacré à Platon, et surtout à Aristote, des commentaires appelés à exercer une influence particulièrement grande dans les domaines de la logique, de la métaphysique, de la noétique. Rédigé dans les dernières années de sa vie, le Grand Commentaire de la Métaphysique marque le couronnement (...) de l'œuvre philosophique d'Averroès. Ce volume présente la première traduction française annotée du texte arabe de Bêta et du commentaire qu'Averroès y consacre. Souvent considéré comme une introduction générale à toute la métaphysique aristotélicienne, le livre Bêta expose une série d'apories que rencontre le philosophe et qu'il doit tâcher de résoudre. La traduction est précédée d'une introduction qui tente de montrer dans quelle perspective Averroès envisage la " problématique " de la métaphysique. Quels sont les principes, les limites, l'objet ou les enjeux de la métaphysique? Voilà les questions, aussi vastes que capitales, auxquelles Averroès tente ici d'apporter une réponse. (shrink)