School of Athens

Theory and History of Ontology

by Raul Corazzon - e-mail: raul.corazzon[at]formalontology.it

For an overview see the Index of the Pages, the SITE MAP or the Alphabetical Index of the Philosophers: A-F - G-O - P-Z; You can also download this page as Ontology in PDF format

Table of Contemporary Ontologists Ontology. Table of Ontologists (click on the image to see the PDF file)

Ancient Islamic (Arabic and Persian) Logic and Ontology

 

Pathways to Non-Western Philosophy

 

INTRODUCTION

A) LOGIC IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM

"It has long been recognized by historians of logic that the medieval Muslim philosophers and philosophical theologians (Mutakallimún: rendered variously as rationalist theologians, dialectical theologians, the "scholastics" of Islam) made some interesting contributions to the history of logic. When the Greek logical works were handed to the Muslim scholars in translation in and after the 9th century A.D., they studied them thoroughly and critically and wrote commentaries upon them. Prantl, (1) the 19th-century writer on the history of logic in the West, noted that Arabic literature on logic was one of the main sources for the terminist logic (i.e., the logic of terms) of the medieval Western logicians - a view upheld by 20th century scholars on medieval philosophy. (2) William and Martha Kneale (3) and David Knowles (4) have also noted the origin in Avicenna (Ibn Sina, d. A.D. 1037) of the doctrine of intentio, a doctrine which was of great importance in both Arabic and medieval Western philosophical logic. The secundae intentiones constituted the subject matter of logic. (I have shown elsewhere, however, that in Arabic logic itself the doctrine of the "intentions" is traceable to al-Farabi, d. A.D. 950). (5)Bochenski (6) was also aware that "Arabian logicians certainly exercised some influence" on medieval scholastic logic.

However, for a complete knowledge of the contributions to logic made by the Muslim philosophers we have to wait until a great number of the logical works in Arabic have been edited and studied. But we know so far that modal logic, the branch of logic which deals with the concepts of possibility and necessity, because of its relevance to the problem of determinism and divine foreknowledge, was of great concern to them; that the relationship between logic and grammar interested them; that conditional syllogisms, the problem of universals, the analysis of the concept of existence and predication, the theory of categorical propositions were some of the logical or logico-philosophical questions which the Muslims philosophers treated in interesting ways."   

 

(1) C. Prantl, Geschichte der Logik in Abendlande (Leipzig, 1855), 2: 263 f.

(2) See, e.g., L. M. de Rijk, Logica Modernorum (Assen, 1962), 1: 18-19.

(3) William Kneale, The Development of Logic (Oxford, 1962), p. 229.

(4) David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought (Baltimore: Helicon Press, 1962), p. 197.

(5) Kwame Gyekye, "The Terms 'prima intentio' and 'secunda intentio' in Arabic Logic," Speculum 46 (January 1971).

(6) I. M. Bochenski, A History of Formal Logic (Notre Dame, 1961), p. 150.   

From: Kwame Gyekye - Arabic logic. Ibn al-Tayyb's Commentary on Porphyry's Eisagoge. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1979 pp. 1-2.

 

Whereas the study of medieval Western logic is now an established field of research, contributing both to modern philosophy of logic and to the intellectual history of the Middle Ages, the study of logic in the precolonial Islamic world is still barely in its infancy. That fact alone makes it difficult to write an introductory chapter on the field:we are as yet unclear what contributions of the logicians writing in Arabic are particularly noteworthy or novel. It is also a dangerous temptation in this state of relative underdevelopment to cast an eye too readily on the work of the Latin medievalist, and to import the methods, assumptions, and even the historical template that have worked so well in the cognate Western field.

This temptation must be resisted at all costs. There are many important differences between the scholarly ideals and options of the Latin West and the Muslim East; there are, also, many differences between the various fortunes encountered by rigorous logical activity in the two realms over the centuries. A glance at the historiographical preliminaries of Bochenski's History of Formal Logic prompts the following observations.(1) First and foremost, Aristotle ceases by the end of the twelfth century to be a significant coordinate for logicians writing in Arabic - that place is filled by Avicenna. The centrality of Avicenna's idiosyncratic system in post-Avicennian logical writings and the absence of Aristotelian logic in a narrowly textual sense meant that Arabic texts dealing with Avicenna's system were left to one side by the medieval Latin translators. Instead, other, less influential texts by Averroes and al-Fârâbi were translated because they did concentrate on Aristotle and spoke to thirteenth-century Western logical concerns. Even at the outset, then, the insignificance of Aristotle's logical system in the Avicennian tradition worked to distort Western appreciation of the relative importance of particular logicians writing in Arabic.

A second difference is that the whole range of Aristotelian logical texts were available in Arabic by about 900, and so the broad periodization of medieval Latin logic into logica vetus and logica nova is inappropriate as a way of periodizing logic written in Arabic; by the time serious logical work began, the complete Organon was available. Avicenna's work marks the watershed for any helpful periodization. Thirdly, Bochenski's analysis of what preconceptions and historical meanderings clutter the way to the proper study of medieval Western logic (the collapse of acute logical study with the demise of scholasticism, the ahistorical reductivism of post-Kantian logic, the institutionalization of a psychologistic logic in neoscholasticism) do not apply to the study of the logic of medieval Muslim scholars - even in the early twentieth century, it is clear that at least some scholars were still in contact with the acute work of the thirteenth century. There had been far less of a rupture in logical activity over the intervening centuries. On the other hand, there have been postcolonial efforts to find later Western logical achievements foreshadowed in early Arabic logic, and this has damaged the prospects for appraisal of the work by leading to a disproportionate focus on minor traditions.

Finally, only some of the characteristics Bochenski finds which distinguish medieval Western logic from the logic of late antiquity apply to the logic being written in Arabic at roughly the same time It too is highly formal and metalogical in its treatment, and pedagogically central; but no doctrine like supposition was developed, and there seems to have been far less concern with antinomies. One may say - nervously, given the current state of research - that Arabic logic is somewhat closer to the logic of late antiquity in its concerns and methods than medieval Latin logic. That said, one must guard against an obvious alternative assumption, which is that Arabic logic is by and large just one or other of the systems of late antiquity.9 We already have enough control over Avicenna's logic to know that is false." 

(1) I. M.Bochenski, A history of formal logic, translated by I. Thomas, Notre Dame, Indiana University Press, 1961; see esp. "On the history of the history of logic" pp. 4-10.

 

B) ONTOLOGY IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM

"The problem of expressing the Greek concept of being in Arabic did not escape classical Islamic writers. But the discussion of this problem as an instance of the general question of the influence of grammar on the formation of philosophical concepts is to be found among some recent writers on Islam, although unfortunately there is hardly anything approaching a sustained treatment from this perspective.

A few quotations from two recent writers will bring into focus those distinctive features of the Arabic language which are said to be problem-causing, and at the same time they will provide our analysis with a point of departure.

In his useful book Philosophical Terminology in Arabic and Persian, Soheil Afnan identifies the problem for the Arabic translator of Greek metaphysics in these words: "the translator can easily find himself helpless." (1) This is generalized to all semitic languages, which are said to be "still unable to express the thought adequately." (2) Afnan attributes this to what he calls "the complete absence of the copula." (3)Another writer, the linguist Angus Graham, in a stimulating article, (4) singles out another, but related, feature of Arabic, the sharp separation of the existential and predicative functions, a feature notably lacking in classical Greek. (5)These two features, the absence of the copula and the existential-predicative separation, are supposed to have stood in the way of expressing the Greek concept of being adequately or accurately. And what is meant by this, in the words of Afnan, is the failure to express "the precise concept of being as distinct from existence." (6) Graham puts it this way: "Because of the structure of the language, they [the Arabic translations of Aristotle] transform him at one stroke into a philosopher who talks sometimes about existence, sometimes about quiddity, never about being. " (7)

 

(1) Philosophical Terminology in Arabic and Persian, p. 29.

(2) Ibid., p. 30. It is not clear what the relevance of time is ("still").

(3) lbid., p. 29.

(4) Angus Graham, " 'Being' in Linguistics and Philosophy," Foundations of Language 1 (1965): 223-31.

(5)  lbid., p. 223. (6) Afnan, op. cit., p. 29.

(7) Graham, op. cit., p. 226; italics in the original.  

From:Fadlou Shehadi - Metaphysics in Islamic philosophy - New York, Caravan Books, 1982 pp. 29-30.

 

Islamic Logicians

 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL GUIDES

A comprehensive bibliography of secondary literature on Islamic philosophy up to the year 2005 can be found in:

 

See also:

 

GENERAL INTRODUCTIONS TO ISLAMIC LOGIC AND ONTOLOGY

  1. History of Islamic philosophy. Edited by Nasr Seyyed Hossein and Leaman Oliver. London: Routledge 1996.

     

  2. An anthology of philosophy in Persia. Edited by Nasr Seyyed Hossein and Aminrazavi Mehdi. New York: Oxford University Press 1999.
    Volume I.

     

  3. Medieval philosophy and the classical tradition: in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Edited by Inglis John. Richmond: Curzon 2002.

     

  4. Greek, Indian, and Arabic logic. Edited by Gabbay Dov and Woods John. Amsterdam: Elsevier North Holland 2004.
    Handbook of the history of logic - Vol. I.
    See the chapters: Arabic logic by Tony Street (pp. 523-596) and The translation of Arabic works on logic into Latin in the Middle Ages and Renaissance by Charles Burnett (pp. 597-605).

     

  5. The Cambridge Companion to Arabic philosophy. Edited by Adamson Peter and Taylor Richard C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005.
    Contents: Notes on contributors: IX; Note on the text XIII; Chronology of major philosophers in the Arabic tradition XV;
    1. Introduction by Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor 1; 2. Greek into Arabic: Neoplatonism in translation by Cristina D'Ancona 10; 3. Al-Kindi and the reception of Greek philosophy by Peter Adamson 32; Al-Farabi and the philosophical curriculum by David C. Reisman 52; 5. The Isma'ilis by Paul E. Walker 72; 6. Avicenna and the Avicennian tradition 92; 7. Al-Ghazali by Michael E. Marmura 137; 8. Philosophy in Andalusia: Ibn Bajja and Ibn Tufayl by Josef Puig Montada 155; 9. Averroes: religious dialectic and Aristotelian philosophical thought by Richard C. Taylor; 10. Suhrawardi and Illuminationism 201; 11. Mysticism and philosophy: Ibn 'Arabi and Mulla Sadra by Sajjad H. Rizvi 224; 12. Logic by Tony Street 247; 13. Ethical and political philosophy 266; 14. Natural philosophy by Marwan Rashed 287; 15. Psychology: soul and intellect 308; 16. Metaphysics by Thérèse-Anne Druart 327; 17. Islamic philosophy and Jewish philosophy by Steven Harvey 349; 18. Arabic into Latin: the reception of Arabic philosophy into Western Europe by Charles Burnett 370; 19. Recent trends in Arabic and Persian philosophy by Hossein Ziai 405; Select bibliography and further readings 426; Index 442-448.

     

  6. Storia della filosofia nell'Islam medievale. Edited by D'Ancona Cristina. Torino: Einaudi 2005.
    Two volumes

     

  7. Badawi Abdurrahman. La transmission de la philosophie Grecque au monde Arabe. Paris: Vrin 1968.
    Second revised and augmented edition 1987.

     

  8. Badawi Abdurrahman. Histoire de la philosophie en Islam. Paris: Vrin 1972.
    Two volumes: Vol. I: Les philosophes théologiques, Vol. II: Les philosophes purs

     

  9. Burnett Charles. Arabic into Latin. The reception of Arabic philosophy into Western Europe. In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic philosophy. Edited by Adamson Peter and Taylor Richard C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004. pp. 370-404

     

  10. D'Ancona Costa Cristina. La casa della sapienza. La trasmissione della metafisica greca e la formazione della filosofia araba. Milano: Guerini e Associati 1996.

     

  11. D'Ancona Costa Cristina. Greek into Arabic: Neoplatonism in translation. In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2004. pp. 10-31

     

  12. Daiber Hans, "Die autonomie der Philosophie im Islam," Acta Philosophica Fennica 48: 228-249 (1990).
    "The paper gives a survey of the concepts of philosophy hold by Islamic philosophers (Kindi, Abu Bakr Ar-Rrazi, Abu Hatim Ar-Razi, Farabi, Ibn Sina, Al-Gazzali, Ibn Bagga, Ibn Tufail, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Khaldun). The dominant concept of philosophy as an epistemological instrument and as a way to the knowledge of God started from Koranic-Islamic assumptions like the idea of a transcendent God, the emphasis of the search after knowledge and first rational methods arguing and thinking about God and world as developed by the Mutazilites of the 8th/9th century. For Kindi who followed Aristotelian and Neoplatonic ideas, philosophy is knowledge of the divine cause and does not contradict religion and its revelation. Abu Bakr Ar-Razi took over Kindi's conception of the autonomy of philosophy and even denied the necessity of revelation; all people are able to philosophy."

     

  13. Daiber Hans. What is the meaning of and to what end do we study the history of Islamic philosophy? In Bibliography of Islamic philosophy. Leiden: Brill 1999. pp. XII-XXXII

     

  14. Druart Thérèse-Anne. Metaphysics. In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic philosophy. Edited by Adamson Peter and Taylor Richard C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005. pp. 327-348

     

  15. Fakhry Majid. The subject-matter of Metaphysics. In Islamic theology and philosophy. Edited by Marmura Michael E. Albany: State University of New York Press 1984. pp. 137-147

     

  16. Gutas Dimitri. Greek thought, Arabic culture. The Graeco-Arabic translation movement in Baghdad and early Abbasid society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries). New York: Routledge 1998.

     

  17. Gutas Dimitri. Greek philosophers in the Arabic tradition. Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Reprints 2000.
    Reprint of the following essays:

    Foreword; Acknowledgements;
    Presocratics and Minor Schools.
    1. Pre-Plotinian philosophy in Arabic (Other than Platonism and Aristotelianism): a review of the sources; 2. Sayings by Diogenes preserved in Arabic; 3. Adrastus of Aphrodisias, (Pseudo-) Cebes, Democrates 'Gnomicus', and Diogenes the Cynic in Arabic sources.
    Plato.
    4. Plato's Symposium in the Arabic tradition; 5. Galen's Synopsis of Plato's Laws and Farabi's Talhis.
    Aristotle and the early Peripatos.
    6. The spurious and the authentic in the Arabic Lives of Aristotle; 7. The life, works, and sayings of Theophrastus in the Arabic tradition; 8. Eudemus in the Arabic tradition.
    Late Antiquity and the interface between Greek and Arabic.
    9. Paul the Persian on the classification of the parts of Aristotle's philosophy: a milestone between Alexandria and Baghdad; 10. The starting point of philosophical studies in Alexandrian and Arabic Aristotelianism; 11. Philoponus and Avicenna on the separability of the Intellect: a case of orthodox Christian-Muslim agreement. 12. The malady of love;
    Index

     

  18. Gutas Dimitri, "The study of Arabic philosophy in the Twentieth century. An essay on the historiography of Arabic philosophy," British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 29: 5-25 (2002).

     

  19. Inati Shams. Logic. In History of Islamic Philosophy. Edited by Nasr Seyyed Hossein and Leaman Oliver. New York: Routledge 1996. pp. 802-823

     

  20. Leaman Oliver. A brief introduction to Islamic philosophy. Malden: Blackwell 1999.

     

  21. Madkour Ibrahim. L'Organon d'Aristote dans le monde arabe, ses traductions, son étude et ses applications. Analyse puisée principalement à un commentaire inédit d'Ibn Sina. Paris: Vrin 1934.
    Preface by Simon van den Bergh.
    Second edition 1969.

     

  22. Madkour Ibrahim, "La métaphysique en terre d'Islam," Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain des Études Orientales (MIDEO) 7: 21-34 (1963).

     

  23. Nasr Seyyed Hossein. An introduction to Islamic cosmological doctrines. Conceptions of nature and methods used for its study by the Ikhwan Al-Safa; Al-Biruni, and Ibn Sina. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1964.
    Forewrod by H. A. R. Gibb.
    Second revised edition: New York, State University of New York Press, 1993.

     

  24. Peters Francis E. Aristotle and the Arabs: the Aristotelian tradition in Islam. New York: State of New York University Press 1968.
    "The purpose of this book is to provide a reliable introduction to the history of the influence of Aristotelianism on Islamic intellectual life. After the ancient stage of Aristotelianism, the medieval transmission stage exhibits two separate movements: the passage of Aristotle into Western
    christianity and the absorption of Aristotelianism by the Oriental world of Islam."

     

  25. Peters Francis E. Aristoteles arabus. The Oriental translations and commentaries on the Aristotelian corpus. New York: State of New York University Press 1968.
    "This monograph is an attempt to say all that can be presently said about the fortunes of the individual Aristotelian texts and their exegetical outriders from circa a. D. 1250 when the last of Ibn Rushd's commentaries on Aristotle arrived at the university of Paris and this particular chapter in the Aristotelian tradition came to an end."

     

  26. Raybaud Natahlie, "La philosophie arabe: une philosophie du commentaire?," Philosophie 77: 85-110 (2003).

     

  27. Rescher Nicholas. The development of Arabic logic. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press 1964.
    "The book begins with a chapter on the "first century" of Arabic logic which is understood to be a period of transmission, translation and assimilation of mainly Alexandrian Aristotelianism. The author relates how toward the end of the development of Arabic logic the initial relationship which logic bore to medicine, mathematics and astronomy was replaced by a new kinship with the Islamic "sciences" of theology, law, philology and rhetoric."

     

  28. Rosenthal Franz. The Classical Heritage in Islam. New York: Routledge 1994.
    Translated from the German by Emile and Jenny Marmorstein.
    Original edition: Das Fortleben der Antike im Islam - Zürich, Artemis, 1965.

     

  29. Shehadi Fadlou. Metaphysics in Islamic philosophy. New York: Caravan Books 1982.

     

  30. Street Tony. Logic. In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic philosophy. Edited by Adamson Peter and Taylor Richard C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005. pp. 247-265

     

  31. Versteegh Kees. Grammar and logic in the Arabic grammatical tradition. In History of the language sciences. An international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the Beginnings to the Present. Edited by Auroux Sylvain et al. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2000. pp. 300-306
    Vol. 1

 

MORE SPECIALIZED WORKS

  1. Logic in classical Islamic culture. Edited by Von Grunebaum Gustav Edmund. Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz 1970.
    Giorgio Levi Della Vida Biennial Conference Proceedings.

     

  2. Essays on Islamic philosophy and science. Edited by Hourani George Fadlo. Albany: State University of New York Press 1975.

     

  3. Islamic theology and philosophy. Studies in honor of George F. Hourani. Edited by Marmura Michael E. Albany: State University of New York Press 1984.

     

  4. Aristotele e i suoi esegeti neoplatonici: Logica e ontologia nelle interpretazioni greche e arabe. Edited by Celluprica Vincenza and D'Ancona Costa Cristina. Napoli: Bibliopolis 2004.
    Atti del convegno internazionale, Roma, 19-20 ottobre 2001

     

  5. Logik und Theologie. Das Organon im arabischen und im lateinischen Mittelalter. Edited by Perler Dominik and Rudolph Ulrich. Leiden: Brill 2005.
    Proceedings of a conference held October 3-5, 2002 in the Kartause Ittingen

     

  6. Afnan Soheil M. Philosophical terminology in Arabic and Persian. Leiden: E. J. Brill 1964.

     

     

  7. Anawati Georges C., "Philosophie médiévale en terre d'Islam," Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain des Études Orientales (MIDEO) 5: 175-236 (1958).

     

  8. Anawati Georges C. Philosophie Arabe ou philosophie Musulmane? Plan pour une bibliographie de philosophie médiévale en Terre d'Islam. In Mélanges offerts a M.-D. Chenu, maitre en théologie. Edited by Duval André. Paris: Vrin 1967. pp. 51-71
    Reprinted in: Georges C. Anawati - Études de philosophie musulmane - Paris, Vrin, 1974 pp. 69-89.

     

  9. Bertolacci Amos, "On the Arabic translations of Aristotle's Metaphysics," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 15: 241-275 (2005).
    "The starting-point and, at the same time, the foundation of recent scholarship on the Arabic translations of Aristotle's Metaphysics are Maurice Bouyges' excellent critical edition of the work in which the extant translations of the Metaphysics are preserved - i.e. Averroes' Tafsir (the so-called "Long Commentary") of the Metaphysics - and his comprehensive account of the Arabic translations and translators of the Metaphysics in the introductory volume. Relying on the texts made available by Bouyges and the impressive amount of philological information conveyed in his edition, subsequent scholars have been able to select and focus on more specific topics, providing, for example, a closer inspection of the Arabic translations of the single books of the Metaphysics (books A, a, and Lambda in particular), or a detailed comparison of some of these translations with the original text of the Metaphysics. A new trend of research in recent times has been the study of these versions as part of the wider context of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement."

     

  10. Black Deborah L. Logic and Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics in medieval Arabic philosophy. Leiden: E. J. Brill 1990.

     

  11. Booth Edward. Aristotelian aporetic ontology in Islamic and Christian thinkers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1983.

     

  12. Elamrani-Jamal A. Logique aristotélicienne et grammaire arabe (Étude et documents). Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin 1983.

     

  13. Endress Gerhard, "L'Aristote arabe: réception, autorité et transformation du Premier Maître," Medioevo 23: 1-42 (1997).

     

  14. Feldman Seymour, "Rescher on Arabic logic," Journal of Philosophy 61: 724-733 (1964).
    "After considerable discussion and criticism of Nicholas Rescher's two works on Arabic logic (largely on al-Farabi) Feldman notes that these are nevertheless valuable in that works on the history of logic, before Rescher, omitted any significant reference to the logical activities of the Arabic writing logicians."

     

  15. Frank Richard M. Beings and their attributes: the teaching of the Basrian school of the Mu'tazila in the classical period. Albany: State University of New York Press 1978.

     

  16. Frank Richard M., "M. Al-Ma'dum wal-Mawjud, the non-existent, the existent and the possible, in the teaching of Abu Hashim and his followers," Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain des Études Orientales (MIDEO) 14: 185-210 (1980).

     

  17. Frank Richard M., "The Ash'arite ontology: I. Primary entities," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 9: 163-231 (1999).

     

  18. Frank Richard M., "The non-existent and the possible in classical Ash'arite teaching," Mélanges de l'Institut Dominicain des Études Orientales (MIDEO) 24: 1-37 (2000).

     

  19. Gutas Dimitri. Aspects of literary form and genre in Arabic logical works. In Glosses and Commentaries on Aristotelian logical texts. The Syriac, Arabic and Medieval Latin traditions. Edited by Burnett Charles. London: The Warburg Institute 1993. pp. 29-76

     

  20. Gyekie Kwame, "The terms Prima intentio and Secunda intentio in Arabic logic," Speculum 46: 32-48 (1971).

     

  21. Gyekie Kwame, "The term Istithna in Arabic logic," Journal of the American Oriental Society 27: 88-92 (1972).

     

  22. Gyekie Kwame. Arabic logic. Ibn al-Tayyb's Commentary on Porphyry's Eisagoge. Albany: State University of New York Press 1979.

     

  23. Hallaq Wael B. Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek logicians. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1993.

     

  24. Hasnawi Ahmed. Topic and analysis: the Arabic tradition. In Whose Aristotle? Whose Aristotelianism? Edited by Sharples Robert W. Aldershot: Ashgate 2001. pp. 28-62

     

  25. Hugonnard-Roche Henri. La formation du vocabulaire de la logique en arabe. In La formation du vocabulaire scientifique et intellectuel dans le monde arabe. Edited by Jacquart Danielle. Turnhout: Brepols 1994. pp. 22-38

     

  26. Hugonnard-Roche Henri, "Le traité de logique de Paul le Persan: une interprétation tardo-antique de la logique aristotélicienne en syriaque," Documenti e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale 11: 59-82 (2000).

     

  27. Hugonnard-Roche Henri. La constitution de la logique tardo-antique et l'élaboration d'une logique "matérielle" en syriaque. In Aristotele e i suoi esegeti neoplatonici: Logica e ontologia nelle interpretazioni greche e arabe. Edited by Celluprica Vincenza and D'Ancona Costa Cristina. Napoli: Bibliopolis 2004. pp. 55-83

     

  28. Kennedy-Day Kiki. Books of definition in Islamic philosophy. The limits of words. New York: Routledge Curzon 2003.

     

  29. Leaman Oliver, "Islamic philosophy and the attack on logic," Topoi 19: 17-24 (2000).

     

  30. Margoliouth David Samuel, "The discussion between Abu Bishr Matta and Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi on the merits of logic and grammar," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 79-129 (1905).

     

  31. Marmura Michael E., "The fortuna of the "Posterior Analytics" in the Arabic Middle Ages," Acta Philosophica Fennica 48: 85-103 (1990).
    "The entry of the "Posterior Analytics" (translated to Arabic early in the 10th century) into medieval Islam marked a turning point in the development of Arabic philosophy. Its precepts became part of the texture of Arabic philosophical discourse as the world came to be perceived through the medium of logical connections, expressed in the language of middle terms. Al-Farabi (d. 950), developed his essentially Platonic political philosophy within the framework of Aristotle's demonstrative ideal. It had immense influence on Avicenna (d. 1037), who expanded on its precepts.
    But it was also influenced by its new Islamic cultural environment. Avicenna included among the premises of demonstration, statements of individual historical events known through innumerable corroborative reports, deemed certain by the Islamic theologians; and the theologian Ghazali (d. 1111), sought to render its canons operative within his non-Aristotelian (occasionalist) world view."

     

  32. Morewedge Parviz, "Contemporary scholarship on Near Eastern philosophy," The Philosophical Forum 2: 122-140 (1970).
    "This article is a critical study of a widespread tendency in contemporary scholarship on Near Eastern philosophy to assume tacitly (1) that Near Eastern philosophy is basically Greek philosophy as modified by the Muslim religious tradition, and (2) that philosophizing terminated altogether in
    the Near East after Ibn Rushd (Averroes). salient features of the philosophy of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) point on the one hand to the presence of many significant themes in Near Eastern philosophy which stand in direct conflict with the commonly held dogmata of the Islamic religion and on the other
    hand to a departure in Ibn Sina's views from those of representative Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plotinus."

     

  33. Morewedge Parviz. Greek sources of some Islamic philosophies of being and existence. In Philosophies of existence. Edited by Morewedge Parviz. New York: Fordham University Press 1982. pp. 285-336
    Reprinted in: Parviz Morewedge - Essays in Islamic philosophy, theology, and mysticism - Oneonta, : Oneonta Philosophy Studies, 1995, pp. 57.138

     

  34. Nasr Seyyed Hossein, "Existence ('wujud') and Quiddity ('mahiyyah') in Islamic philosophy," International Philosophical Quarterly 29: 409-428 (1989).
    "This paper deals with the meaning of "wujud" and "mahiyyah" in various schools of Islamic thought. It begins by turning attention to the significance of this subject for Islamic philosophy as well as theology and even certain schools of sufism. It traces the history of the subject from Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina to Suhrawardi, Fakhr al-din Al-Razi and later Islamic philosophers such as Mir Damad and Mulla Sadra. The essay then deals with the basic distinctions made by Ibn Sina between necessity, contingency and impossibility which forms the basis of the ontology of Islamic philosophers."

     

  35. Rámon Guerrero Rafael, "El lenguaje del ser: de Ibn Sina a Mulla Sadra," Convivium 14: 113-127 (2001).

     

  36. Rescher Nicholas. Studies in the history of Arabic logic. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press 1964.
    "In the ten essays brought together in this volume, the author discusses different aspects and problems related to the intellectual history of Islam and centered around logical and philosophical issues. The guiding line is that Arabic logic is entirely Western and has nothing to do with "oriental philosophy." Six of the essays have appeared in different journals. The first essay, written especially for this volume, gives a brief account of the history of Arabic logic. The other essays deal with particular texts and problems related to the writings of such thinkers as al-Farabi, al-Kindi, Avicenna, Abu 'l-Salt of Denia, Averroes. The book contains extensive bibliographical references, documentary and critical notes."

     

  37. Rescher Nicholas. Temporal modalities in Arabic logic. Dordrecht: D. Reidel 1967.

     

  38. Rescher Nicholas. Studies in Arabic philosophy. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press 1968.

     

  39. Street Tony, "Towards a history of syllogistic after Avicenna: notes on Rescher's studies on Arabic modal logic," Journal of Islamic Studies 11: 209-228 (2000).
    "This article examines the works of Rescher on Arabic syllogistic, particularly his 1974 paper, 'The Theory of Modal Syllogistic in Medieval Arabic Philosophy'. The article focuses in particular on the technical terms used by the logicians Rescher studies, and suggests some alternative translations. It also argues that the historical conclusions Rescher reaches need to be significantly qualified."

     

  40. Taha Abderrahmane. Langage et philosophie. Essai sur le structure linguistiques de l'ontologie. Rabat: Imprimerie de Fédala 1979.
    With the traduction of the discussion reported by Abu Hayyan at-Tawhidi within the logician Matta Ibn Yunus and the grammarian Abu Sa'id as-Strafi and two other texts.

     

  41. Teixidor Javier. Aristote en Syriaque. Paul le Perse, logicien du VIe siècle. Paris: CNRS Éditions 2003.

     

  42. Thillet Pierre. La formation du vocabulaire philosophique arabe. In La formation du vocabulaire scientifique et intellectuel dans le monde arabe. Edited by Jacquart Danielle. Turnhout: Brepols 1994. pp. 39-54

     

  43. Thom Paul. Medieval modal systems. Aldershot: Ashgate 2003.

     

  44. Troupeau Gérard. La terminologie grammaticale. In La formation du vocabulaire scientifique et intellectuel dans le monde arabe. Edited by Jacquart Danielle. Turnhout: Brepols 1994. pp. 11-21

     

  45. Walbridge John, "Logic in the Islamic intellectual tradition: The recent centuries," Islamic Studies 39: 55-75 (2000).

     

  46. Wolfson Harry Austryn. The terms Tasawwur and Tasdiq in Arabic philosophy and their Greek, Latin and Hebrew equivalents. In Studies in the history and philosophy of religion. (Vol. I). Edited by Twersky Isadore and Williams George H. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1973. pp. 478-492

     

LINKS

Islamic Philosophy Online 

Journal of Islamic Philosophy

Publications of Islamic Philosophy (Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften) 

 

RELATED PAGES

Ontology and the History of Western Logic. An Introduction

 

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Last modified: Tuesday, March 09, 2010