Journal of the History of Philosophy

BOOK REVIEWS 627 person living a good life. Rather, Aristotle's defense of theor/a presupposes that a person engaging in it is a person of practical excellence and serves as his answer to the question how a good person should spend such leisure time as he is fortunate enough to have. The life of practical virtue, on Broadie's reading of Aristotle, must include something higher than the exercise of practical virtue; theor/a is superbly suited to fill that position. These are striking and original interpretations; I hope that their mention is sufficient to convey a sense of the interest and importance of Eth/cs with Aristotle. The book deserves a wide readership. CHARLES M. YOUNG The Claremont Graduate School Franz Rosenthal. Greek Philosophy in the Arab World: A Collection of Essays. Variorum Collected Series. Brookfield, VT: Cower Publishers, a991. Pp. ix + x83. Board, $75-95. This collection of essays by one of our century's leading Orientalists spans a forty-year period, beginning in 1937, and brings us from the native German of the author to his adopted English. The real languages of the book, however, are Arabic and Greek, and readers without facility with both will not be able to appreciate fully the wealth of learning and discernment with which the book abounds. In this work Professor Rosenthal retrieves from diverse sources, many in manuscript , what was known in the Islamic world of certain Greek authors, and what sayings were attributed to them. The authors include Zeno of Elea, Plato, and Plotinus, as well as lesser, and in some cases anonymous Greek figures, the supposed sources for sayings and writings which appear in later Arabic collections. Rosenthal is convinced of the Hellenistic provenience of all this material, even where he is unable to identify a specific source (cf. Essay VII, p. x56). The nature of the material, its philosophical or gnomological contents, brings him to locate the writing in the earlier Graeco-Syriac civilization, to which Islam was heir. It is Rosenthai's thesis, as stated in his foreword, that "Islam developed within the orbit of Hellenistic civilization, albeit an 'orientalized' version of it," and that "[p]hilosophy , in particular.., built upon Hellenistic foundations." The material chosen for investigation in this book amply demonstrates this thesis, though rather naturally so, since it is all material specifically attributed to Greek authors by their Arab transmitters . Still, Rosenthal is convinced of the importance of the Greek heritage for Muslim civilization in general, and particularly of the influence Plotinus had in shaping that civilization. It is Neoplatonic thought which Rosenthal believes brought together the divergent strands in Islam of Greek philosophy, Judaeo-Christian metaphysics, and "the ecstatic dream world of mysticism" (Essay IV, p. 437)- The coherence and creativity which Rosenthal detects in medieval Muslim civilization is viewed as the product of this philosophy, a bold and certainly debatable claim. 628 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 31:4 OCTOBER 199 3 This attributing of Muslim intellectual creativity to Greek philosophy is not "politically correct" today, but as the reader of this or any other work of Professor Rosenthal's immediately recognizes, he is a scholar without bias, eminently fair and impartial in his scrutiny of the sources. Rosenthal's "Orientalism" is not political but of the classical scholarly kind, rooted in complete control of both the Greek and Arabic languages and literatures. It is philology which distinguishes his research, not politics, and it is his mastery of both Greek and Muslim cultures which entitles him to the views he holds. Indeed, Greek Philosophy in the Arab World is a philological tour deforce, the author more interested actually in identifying certain authors and transmitting various texts, than in discussing them philosophically. Such evaluation of the material is largely left to others, and notes in the rear of the book point the reader to subsequent research on the topics discussed. These notes also correct some of the errors found in the original essays, as well as show Professor Rosenthal's awareness of the difficulties he had at first with the English language. The articles which comprise this work were intended originally for scholars in the field, and the generally educated...