Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect

By Herbert A. Davidson

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195074238
• ISBN13: 9780195074239
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher