Article ID: CBB177931396

Natural Teleology versus Material Determinism and Chance: Al-'Āmirī against Empedocles and Galen on Nature and Soul (2021)

unapi

This article reassesses the relationship between the tenth-century Muslim philosopher Abū al-Ḥasan al-'Āmirī (d. 992) and the pre-Socratic Greek thinker Empedocles. Earlier scholarship has focused on al-'Āmirī's popular work al-Amad (Afterlife), in which Empedocles, or rather a medieval construct known as pseudo-Empedocles or Empedocles arabus, is largely celebrated as a sage with Qur'ānic pedigree. By focusing for the first time on two largely unstudied treatises by al-'Āmirī, I argue that al-'Āmirī actually holds an overwhelmingly critical view of the authentic, historical Empedocles, a view formed through his engagement with arguments from Aristotle's Physics and On the Soul. Al-'Āmirī finds in Aristotle the evidence needed to ascribe to Empedocles an unorthodox position on material determinism and the role of providence in natural generation. Curiously, he is able to make similar accusations against Galen. This article also highlights al-'Āmirī's complicated position at the confluence of Neoplatonic metaphysics, Galenic physiology, and Aristotelian natural philosophy.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB177931396/

Similar Citations

Thesis Galsworthy, Carrie; (2010)
Language and Intent in Empedocles' Cosmic Cycle (/isis/citation/CBB001560877/)

Book Dag Nikolaus Hasse; Amos Bertolacci; (2018)
The Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin Reception of Avicenna's Physics and Cosmology (/isis/citation/CBB464758264/)

Article Berg, Hein van den; (2013)
The Wolffian Roots of Kant's Teleology (/isis/citation/CBB001320551/)

Book Dudley, John; (2012)
Aristotle's Concept of Chance: Accidents, Cause, Necessity, and Determinism (/isis/citation/CBB001201754/)

Book Cassandra Gorman; (2021)
The Atom in Seventeenth-Century Poetry (/isis/citation/CBB486681154/)

Article Leen Spruit; (2017)
Sebastiano Bartoli on Life and the Soul (/isis/citation/CBB245646731/)

Article Martine Pécharman; (2020)
Kenelm Digby on Quantity as Divisibility (/isis/citation/CBB645048085/)

Article García Valverde, José Manuel; (2007)
El galenismo crítico de Girolamo Cardano: Análisis de la presencia de galeno en el De Immortalitate Animorum (/isis/citation/CBB000831503/)

Book Horstmanshoff, H. F. J.; King, Helen; Zittel, Claus; (2012)
Blood, Sweat, and Tears: The Changing Concepts of Physiology from Antiquity into Early Modern Europe (/isis/citation/CBB001252880/)

Book Cooper, John Madison; (2004)
Knowledge, Nature, and the Good: Essays on Ancient Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB000650408/)

Article Luis Alejandro Salas; (2020)
Galen on the Definition of Disease (/isis/citation/CBB302055617/)

Article Mason, Andrew; (2013)
The Nous Doctrine in Plato's Thought (/isis/citation/CBB001213463/)

Article Tommaso Sgarro; (2020)
Fisiologia e provvidenza in Campanella (/isis/citation/CBB293360928/)

Article Lewis, Orly; Gregoric, Pavel; (2015)
The Context of De Spiritu (/isis/citation/CBB001551343/)

Article Claire Bubb; (2019)
The Physiology of Phantasmata in Aristotle: Between Sensation and Digestion (/isis/citation/CBB675892501/)

Article Daniel Coren; (2020)
Aristotle on Motion in Incomplete Animals (/isis/citation/CBB473772713/)

Authors & Contributors
Sgarro, Tommaso
Klinger, Dustin
Gorman, Cassandra
Bigotti, Fabrizio
Garau, Rodolfo
Salas, Luis Alejandro
Concepts
Natural philosophy
Soul (philosophy)
Metaphysics
Medicine
Physiology
Philosophy
Time Periods
Ancient
17th century
16th century
Medieval
Early modern
Renaissance
Places
Greece
Italy
Europe
England
Institutions
Oxford University
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment