HoPWaG: the Books

This was the first book in the Great Medieval Thinkers series to focus on an Islamic philosopher. It offers a brief, accessible introduction to the thought of the philosopher al-Kindi (died roughly 870 AD). His works, though brief, are of great historical importance, as he was the first philosopher of the Islamic world. The book surveys what is known of al-Kindi's life, examine his thought on a wide range of topics, including the eternity of the world, his proof of God's existence, his work in mathematics in science, and his theories of soul and ethics, always with an eye to the relationship of al-Kindi's philosophy to his Greek sources.

By Peter Adamson and Peter E. Pormann

This volume renders into English the philosophical writings of the first philosopher of Islam: al-Kindi, known as the "Philosopher of the Arabs." One of the greatest figures of medieval philosophy, al-Kindi initiated the process of integrating Greek philosophical ideas into Islamic culture. He was deeply involved in the translation of Greek philosophy and science into Arabic, and wrote on a wide range of philosophical and scientific topics including metaphysics, theology, psychology, cosmology, ethics, and medicine. In these works al-Kindi sets out pioneering ideas about the relation of philosophy to religion, the oneness and providence of God, the nature of the human soul, the structure of the cosmos, and the eternity of the world. This book makes the whole of al-Kindi's philosophical corpus (some two dozen works) available in English, most of them for the first time.

This book introduces readers to Abu Bakr al-Razi (known in Latin as Rhazes), one of the most innovative and divisive figures of the early philosophical tradition in the Islamic world. Drawing on his extant works on ethics and a range of quotations and testimony from often hostile medieval authors, Adamson reconstructs Razi's cosmological system, which posits four principles alongside God for the making of the universe: Soul, Matter, Time, and Place. Adamson argues that this system is fundamentally based on Plato, while it accepts Aristotle's physics as a "relative" or superficial description of the universe. Razi's scientific contributions are also considered in depth, with discussion of alchemy and medicine. The final chapter looks at Razi's views on ethics, and argues against a prominent interpretation of him as a hedonist inspired by Epicureanism.

In this engaging study into the history of philosophy and epistemology, Peter Adamson provides an answer to a question as relevant today as it was in the medieval period: how and when should we turn to the authoritative expertise of other people in forming our own beliefs? He challenges us to reconsider our approach to this question through a constructive recovery of the intellectual and cultural traditions of the Islamic world, the Byzantine Empire, and Latin Christendom.

In this Very Short Introduction, Peter Adamson explores the history of philosophy among Muslims, Jews, and Christians living in Islamic lands, from its historical background to thinkers in the twentieth century. Introducing the main philosophical themes of the Islamic world, Adamson integrates ideas from the Islamic and Abrahamic faiths to consider the broad philosophical questions that continue to invite debate: What is the relationship between reason and religious belief? What is the possibility of proving God's existence? What is the nature of knowledge? Drawing on the most recent research in the field, this book challenges the assumption of the cultural decline of philosophy and science in the Islamic world by demonstrating its rich heritage and overlap with other faiths and philosophies.

This book provides an introduction to the most important philosopher of the Islamic world, Ibn Sīnā, often known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna. Among the topics covered are his innovations in logic, his theory of the human soul and its powers, the relation between his medical writings and his philosophy, and his metaphysics of existence. Particular attention is given to two famous arguments: his flying man thought experiment and the so-called “demonstration of the truthful,” a proof for the existence of God as the Necessary Existent. A distinctive feature of the book is its attention to the relationship between Ibn Sīnā and Islamic rational theology (kalām): in which we see how Ibn Sīnā responded to this tradition in many areas of his thought. A final chapter looks at Ibn Sīnā's legacy in both the Islamic world and in Latin Christendom.

By Peter Adamson and Fedor Benevich

This is the first in a series of sourcebooks charting the reception of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d.1037) in the Islamic East (from Syria to central Asia) in the 12th-13th centuries CE. Avicenna was the dominant philosophical authority in this period, who provoked generations of thinkers to subtle critique, defense, and development of his ideas. The series will translate and analyze hundreds of passages from works by such figures as al-Ghazālī, al-Suhrawardī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, and many more. This volume focuses especially on issues in metaphysics, dealing with topics like the essence-existence distinction, the problem of universals, free will and determinism, Platonic Forms, good and evil, proofs of God’s existence, and the relationship between philosophy and theology.

NOTE: this book is open access and you can download the electronic version for free, as well as buying it, at the below link. 

For free access to the original texts in Arabic, Persian, etc. go to the Heirs of Avicenna website.

Philosophy in the Islamic world from the 9th to 11th centuries was characterized by an engagement with Greek philosophical works in Arabic translation. This volume collects papers on both the Greek philosophers in their new Arabic guise, and on reactions to the translation movement in the period leading up to Avicenna. The papers are organized in several sections: one on  the ’formative’ period of philosophy in the Islamic world, discussing the Arabic reception of Aristotle and of his commentators; a second on the reception of Galen, especially in the work of al-Rāzī; and a third on al-Fārābī and the Baghdad School of Aristotelian philosophers. A final group of papers is devoted to Avicenna’s philosophy, which marks the beginning of a new era of philosophy in the Islamic world.

This book collects 15 papers on the greatest philosopher of late antiquity and founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (d.270), and the founding figure of philosophy in the Islamic world: al-Kindī (d. ca. 873). A number of the contributions focus on the text that joins the two: the so-called Theology of Aristotle, in fact an Arabic version of Plotinus’ Enneads produced in al- Kindī's translation circle. Two contributions also analyze the notes on the Theology written by the great Avicenna. Other papers look at aspects of al-Kindī's own thought, exploring his ideas concerning metaphysics, free will astrology, and optics. The traditions of Plotinus and al-Kindī are also treated, with papers on Plotinus’ student Porphyry and his Arabic reception, and on followers of al-Kindī.

Based on Peter's PhD thesis, this book compares the Arabic version of the works of Plotinus, the founding thinker of the Neoplatonic tradition, to the original Greek version. The central argument is that the Arabic reworking of Plotinus Enneads reflects the intellectual concerns of the Kindī translation circle, which produced the Arabic version. 

Edited by Peter Adamson and G. Fay Edwards

Twelve essays trace the significance of animals from Greek and Indian antiquity through the Islamic and Latin medieval traditions, to Renaissance and early modern thought, ending with contemporary notions about animals. Two main questions emerge throughout the volume: what capacities can be ascribed to animals, and how should we treat them? Notoriously ungenerous attitudes towards animals' mental lives and ethics status, found for instance in Aristotle and Descartes, are shown to have been more nuanced than often supposed, while remarkable defenses of benevolence towards animals are unearthed in late antiquity, India, the Islamic world, and Kant. Other chapters examine cannibalism and vegetarianism in Renaissance thought, and the scientific testing of animals. A series of interdisciplinary reflections sheds further light on human attitudes towards animals, looking at their depiction in visual artworks from China, Africa, and Europe, as well as the rich tradition of animal fables beginning with Aesop.

Edited by Peter Adamson

From antiquity to the Renaissance, contributors explore the Chinese idea of qi or circulating "vital breath," ideas about medical methodology in antiquity and the middle ages, and the rise and long-lasting influence of Galenic medicine. In the early modern period, mechanistic theories of the body made it more difficult to explain what health is and why it is more valuable than other physical states. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, scientific improvements in public health emerged along with new ideas about the psychology of health, notably with the concept of "sensibility" and Freud's psychoanalytic theory. The volume concludes with a critical survey of recent philosophical attempts to define health, showing that both "descriptive," or naturalistic, and "normativist" approaches have fallen prey to objections and counterexamples.

Edited by Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor

This collection of essays, by some of the leading scholars in Arabic philosophy, provides an introduction to the field by way of chapters devoted to individual thinkers (such as al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes) or groups, especially during the 'classical' period from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. It also includes chapters on areas of philosophical inquiry across the tradition, such as ethics and metaphysics. Finally, it includes chapters on later Islamic thought, and on the connections between Arabic philosophy and Greek, Jewish, and Latin philosophy. The volume also includes a useful bibliography and a chronology of the most important Arabic thinkers.

Avicenna is the greatest philosopher of the Islamic world. His immense impact on Christian and Jewish medieval thought, as well as on the subsequent Islamic tradition, is charted in this volume alongside studies which provide a comprehensive introduction to and analysis of his philosophy. Contributions from leading scholars address a wide range of topics including Avicenna's life and works, conception of philosophy and achievement in logic and medicine. His ideas in the main areas of philosophy, such as epistemology, philosophy of religion and physics, are also analyzed. While serving as a general introduction to Avicenna's thought, this collection of critical essays also represents the cutting edge of scholarship on this most influential philosopher of the medieval era.

Edited by Peter Adamson and Matteo Di Giovanni

This volume brings together world-leading scholars on the thought of Averroes, the greatest medieval commentator on Aristotle but also a major scholar of Islam. The collection situates him in his historical context by emphasizing the way that he responded to the political situation of twelfth-century Islamic Spain and the provocations of Islamic theology. It also sheds light on the interconnections between aspects of his work that are usually studied separately, such as his treatises on logic and his legal writings. Advanced students and scholars will find authoritative and insightful treatments of Averroes' philosophy, tackled from multiple perspectives and written in a clear and accessible way that will appeal to those encountering his work for the first time as well as to anyone looking for new critical approaches to Averroes and his thinking.