"This work should be in every graduate philosophy collection and is recommended for larger undergraduate libraries."--"Choice." (Philosophy)

CONTENTS Paul J.J.M BakkerIntroduction Cristina CeramiL’éternel par soi Jean-Baptiste BrenetAlexandre d’Aphrodise ou le matérialiste malgré lui Dag Nikolaus HasseAverroes’ Critique of Ptolemy and Its Reception by John of Jandun andAgostino Nifo Silvia DonatiIs Celestial Motion a Natural Motion? Cecilia TrifogliThe Reception of Averroes’ View on Motion in the Latin West Edith Dudley SyllaAverroes and Fourteenth-Century Theories of Alteration Craig MartinProvidence and Seventeenth-Century Attacks on Averroes Bibliography Index Codicum Manu ScriptorumIndex Nominum

A study of problems revolving around the subject of intellect in the philosophies of Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, this book pays particular attention to the way in which these philosophers addressed the tangle of issues that grew up around the active intellect.

A study of problems, all revolving around the subject of intellect in the philosophies of Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, this book starts by reviewing discussions in Greek and early Arabic philosophy which served as the background for the three Arabic thinkers. Davidson examines the cosmologies and theories of human and active intellect in the three philosophers and covers such subjects as: the emanation of the supernal realm from the First Cause; the emanation of the lower world from the transcendent active intellect; stages of human intellect; illumination of the human intellect by the transcendent active intellect; conjunction of the human intellect with the transcendent active intellect; prophecy; and human immortality. Davidson shows that medieval Jewish philosophers and the Latin Scholastics had differing perceptions of Averroes because they happened to use works belonging to different periods of his philosophic career.

Plato's doctrine of the soul, its immaterial nature, its parts or faculties, and its fate after death (and before birth) came to have an enormous influence on the great religious traditions that sprang up in late antiquity, beginning with Judaism (in the person of Philo of Alexandria), and continuing with Christianity, from St. Paul on through the Alexandrian and Cappadocian Fathers to Byzantium, and finally with Islamic thinkers from Al-kindi on. This volume, while not aspiring to completeness, attempts to provide insights into how members of each of these traditions adapted Platonist doctrines to their own particular needs, with varying degrees of creativity.

Engages with all aspects of Averroes' philosophy, from his thinking on Aristotle to his influence on Islamic law.

A revised and expanded 2001 edition of Oliver Leaman's classic introductory work.