In defence of the sovereignty of philosophy: Al-baghdādī's critique of Ibn al-haytham's geometrisation of placean earlier concise version of this paper was presented on 18 february 2006 in Florence, under the title: ‘The physical or the mathematical? Interrogating al-baghdādī's critique of Ibn al-haytham's geometrisation of place’, as part of the colloque de la société internationale d'histoire Des sciences et Des philosophies arabes et islamiques , which was held in association with the university of Florence. This text will be published as part of the proceedings of the colloquium , under the editorship of Graziella Federici vescovini .: In defence of the sovereignty of philosophy [Book Review]

This paper investigates the objections that were raised by the philosopher ‘Abd al-La&tdotu;īf al-Baghdādī against al-&Hdotu;asan ibn al-Haytham’s geometrisation of place. In this line of enquiry, I contrast the philosophical propositions that were advanced by al-Baghdādī in his tract: Fī al-Radd ‘alā Ibn al-Haytham fī al-makān, with the geometrical demonstrations that Ibn al-Haytham presented in his groundbreaking treatise: Qawl fī al-Makān. In examining the particulars of al-Baghdādī’s fragile defence of Aristotle’s definition of topos as delineated in Book IV of the Physics, which was rejected on mathematical grounds by Ibn al-Haytham, a special attention is also given to highlighting the systemic distinctions between the entities that are studied within the speculative physical doctrines of common sense and immediate experience, and the postulated ‘objects’ of scientific and mathematical research.