FUCK THE POLICE
911 EVERY DAY
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/aijii/today_i_learned_that_the_person_who_introduced/
Today I learned that the person who introduced secularism and kick-started science in Western Europe was actually a brilliant Islamic scholar. From /r/PhilosophyofScience. (self.science)
Originally posted in /r/PhilosophyofScience
I was re-reading Nassim Taleb's book "The Black Swan" when I came across this passage describing where Islamic and Christian attitudes towards science diverged in the 12th Century :
The eleventh-century Arabic-language skeptic Al-Ghazali, known in Latin as Algazel wrote a diatribe called Tahafut al falasifa, which I translate as "The Incompetence of Philosophy."
Algazel's attack on "scientific" knowledge started a debate with Averroës, the medieval philosopher who ended up having the most profound influence of any medieval thinker (on Jews and Christians, though not on Moslems). The debate between Algazel and Averroës was finally, but sadly, won by both. In its aftermath, many Arab religious thinkers integrated and exaggerated Algazel's skepticism of the scientific method, preferring to leave causal considerations to God. The West embraced Averroës's rationalism, built upon Aristotle's, which survived through Aquinas and the Jewish philosophers who called themselves Averroan for a long time. Many thinkers blame the Arabs' later abandonment of scientific method on Algazel's huge influence. He ended up fueling Sufi mysticism, in which the worshipper attempts to enter into communion with God, severing all connections with earthly matters.
Averroes turns out to be a thinker of immense impact in astronomy, physics, philosophy, law, medicine, logic, politics, psychology and more. His school of philosophy, Averroism became the dominant school of thought in Western Europe right up until the 16th Century.
Among his numerous contributions to knowledge were his descriptions of force and inertia which Galileo himself rejected but were ultimately adopted by Newton. Some consider him the first existentialist philosopher. In one work, he provided a justification for the emancipation of science and philosophy from the official theology. Bear in mind this is five hundred years before the Enlightenment.
The debate between Averroes and Algazel was captured in two books. Algazel's attack on philosophy "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" can be read in full here. Averroes' reply is mockingly called "The Incoherence of the Incoherence" and is available in full here. Islam embraced (and exaggerated) Algazel's teachings and rejected Averroes' and has never recovered.
All Islam apologetics aside, it seems to me to be a travesty of the history of science and philosophy, that Averroes' influence on Western thought is rarely given mention in Western education.
Today I learned that the person who introduced secularism and kick-started science in Western Europe was actually a brilliant Islamic scholar. From /r/PhilosophyofScience. (self.science)
Originally posted in /r/PhilosophyofScience
I was re-reading Nassim Taleb's book "The Black Swan" when I came across this passage describing where Islamic and Christian attitudes towards science diverged in the 12th Century :
The eleventh-century Arabic-language skeptic Al-Ghazali, known in Latin as Algazel wrote a diatribe called Tahafut al falasifa, which I translate as "The Incompetence of Philosophy."
Algazel's attack on "scientific" knowledge started a debate with Averroës, the medieval philosopher who ended up having the most profound influence of any medieval thinker (on Jews and Christians, though not on Moslems). The debate between Algazel and Averroës was finally, but sadly, won by both. In its aftermath, many Arab religious thinkers integrated and exaggerated Algazel's skepticism of the scientific method, preferring to leave causal considerations to God. The West embraced Averroës's rationalism, built upon Aristotle's, which survived through Aquinas and the Jewish philosophers who called themselves Averroan for a long time. Many thinkers blame the Arabs' later abandonment of scientific method on Algazel's huge influence. He ended up fueling Sufi mysticism, in which the worshipper attempts to enter into communion with God, severing all connections with earthly matters.
Averroes turns out to be a thinker of immense impact in astronomy, physics, philosophy, law, medicine, logic, politics, psychology and more. His school of philosophy, Averroism became the dominant school of thought in Western Europe right up until the 16th Century.
Among his numerous contributions to knowledge were his descriptions of force and inertia which Galileo himself rejected but were ultimately adopted by Newton. Some consider him the first existentialist philosopher. In one work, he provided a justification for the emancipation of science and philosophy from the official theology. Bear in mind this is five hundred years before the Enlightenment.
The debate between Averroes and Algazel was captured in two books. Algazel's attack on philosophy "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" can be read in full here. Averroes' reply is mockingly called "The Incoherence of the Incoherence" and is available in full here. Islam embraced (and exaggerated) Algazel's teachings and rejected Averroes' and has never recovered.
All Islam apologetics aside, it seems to me to be a travesty of the history of science and philosophy, that Averroes' influence on Western thought is rarely given mention in Western education.
