The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment is a collection of essays which deal with the influence of Ibn Tufayl, a 12th-century Arab philosopher from Spain, on major European thinkers. His philosophical novel, Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, could be considered one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution. Its thoughts are found in different variations and to different degrees in the books of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Isaac Newton, and Kant. But if Ibn Tufayl's fundamental values, such as equality, freedom and toleration, which the thinkers of the European Enlightenment had adopted as theirs, paved the way to the French Revolution, they certainly marked the end of the age of reason in southern Spain and the rest of the Islamic world. Ibn Tufayl's philosophy was appropriated, subverted, or reinvented for many centuries. But the memory of the man who wrote such an influential book was buried in the dust of history. The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment reexamines Ibn Tufayl's momentous book and its continued influence over contemporary philosophy. This intriguing book will appeal to those interested in comparative literature and religion.

Ibn Tufail is an Arab legend, "The History of Hayy bin Yaqzan," is one of the most famous of Ibn Tufail's left; a philosophical story in which he presented his philosophical ideas in an anecdotal manner, trying to reconcile religion with philosophy. He tells the story of a person called Hayy bin Yaqzan who grew up on an uninhabited island alone, and symbolises the human being, and his relationship with the universe and religion. It contains many sub-myths and contained philosophical implications.This story has been known in the West since the seventeenth century, and has been translated into several languages, including Latin, Hebrew, English, French, German and Dutch.

Goodman, focuses on a series of core issues common to the two intertwined philosophical traditions - freedom and determinism, the basis of ethical values, the relationship between faith and reason, the governance of God, the basis of friendship, and the meaning of history - to examine the rich and varied interactions of two traditions that have carried on a written conversation spanning the centuries."--BOOK JACKET.

The story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Risalat hayy ibn yaqzan) is described by its author, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Tufayl, as an introduction to the philosophy or 'wisdom' intimated by one of the most renowned philosophers of Islam, the Sheikh and Master, Abu' Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna). It was written to counter what Ibn Tufayl perceived to be the damaging influence of pseudo-philosophic ideas then current in Muslim Spain. Hayy ibn Yaqzan is thus, on one level a sort of primer on medieval Islamic Philosophy. The book establishes its frame of reference with a short and selective critique of Islamic philosophy before introducing the narrative framework of a boy of obscure origins reared by a gazelle on a desert island without human contact. The very uncertainty of the boy's origin is used by the author as an oppurtunity to include a theory of the origins of life. As the boy gradually becomes aware of his surroudings, he begins to understand that he is somehow different from the other animals, yet superior by virtue of the technical advantages he can realise with his hands.

Vittorio Cotesta’s The Heavens and the Earth traces the origin of the images of the world typical of the Graeco-Roman, Ancient Chinese and Medieval Islamic civilisations. Each of them had its own peculiar way of understanding the universe, life, death, society, power, humanity and its destiny. The comparative analysis carried out here suggests that they all shared a common human aspiration despite their differences: human being is unique; differences are details which enrich its image. Today, the traditions derived from these civilisations are often in competition and conflict. Reference to a common vision of humanity as a shared universal entity should lead, instead, to a quest for understanding and dialogue.

First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.