9:1:
Arabic and Islamic Philosophy and Sciences: Method and Truth
What are Arabic and Islamic philosophy and sciences? How and where did they come about? I am trying in this preface to provide a short and brief answer to those two questions. Having done this, I sketch the contents of five papers trying to study Arabic and Islamic philosophy and sciences from its perspective to method and truth.
Three Notes on the Method of Analysis and Synthesis
in its Ancient and (Arabic) Medieval Contexts
Most historians and philosophers of philosophy and history of mathematics hold one interpretation or the other of the nature of the method of analysis and synthesis in itself and in its historical development. In this paper, I am trying to prove – through three points – that, in fact, there were two understandings of that method in Greek Mathematics and philosophy, and which were reflected in Arabic mathematical science and philosophy; this reflection is considered as proof also of this double nature of that method. Thus, we have to rethink the nature of Arabic philosophy systems.
The Status of Conditional Syllogism in Syllogistics
The form of the conditional syllogism resembles that of the categorical syllogism, while its subject matter is at least a conditional premise, but its conclusion is always conditional conjunctive or disjunctive. This mixed structure to which we apply the rules of the categorical syllogism, is a structure of which Aristotle did not have an idea, and which the Stoics did not conceive, and which the non-Arabian logicians did not know until in modern times. But what we have to notice here is the putting of a conditional matter in the form of the categorical syllogism, and it is this kind of hybridization, if we dare to say, which generated this mixed structure which appeared for the first time in the history of logic in the treatise on the logic of Ibn Sina and which can be considered a discovery by this author until proof to the contrary, and that the ancient Arabian logicians have taken the habit of exhibiting in their treatises.
Theory of Syllogisms with Categorical, Conditional
and Disjunctive Connectives Developed by Arabian Logicians
In this paper, we are trying to summarize the peak of achievement of the Arabian logicians of the Arabian logicians of the fifteenth century by making a classification and sketching in familiar terms the conditional and subjunctive syllogisms in Muḥammad Ibn Yusūf al-SSinūsī's (1426-1490) work, i.e. in his explanation of Kitāb al-Muḫtaşar fī al-Manṭiq of al-Imām Muḥammad Ibn ʿArafa (1316-1401).
Perspectives on the Notion of Truth in Arabic Philosophy
In the present paper, I assume that the notion of “truth” in philosophy would
not have been clarified and tackled properly, if philosophers did not take into
account earlier Arabic Medieval research contributions and build upon
previous research findings. In the first place, I embark on the scrutiny of the
rich aspect (or nature) of the Arabic Lexicon in terms of the “truth” meaning.
In the second place, I take on the assumption that Arabic linguistic traditions
imply different kinds of truths, depending on various spheres of human
thoughts and actions based on the logical approach to “truth” (from Al-Kindi
up to Averroes via Al-Farabi and Avicenna) and the term “al-haqiqha” as
transliterated from Arabic, remain central. In conclusion, I take on an approach
to “truth” that gives worth to logical perspectives at the very heart of Medieval
Arab traditions in the light of what I would label as the “Omni-cultural
Universality of Logic and Science”.
Reaching the Goal of Alchemy – or:
What Happens When You Finally Have Created the Philosophers’ Stone?
Alchemy is the art of transforming base metals into precious ones, usually silver and/or gold. The most important method conceived to reach this goal was the creation of the elixir, also called the philosophers’ stone, which, applied to the prime-matter, would lead to an accelerated process of ripening of metals, eventually ending in gold. How did Arabo-Islamic alchemists suppose that the transmutation worked? What were the conditions the adept had to fulfil in order to succeed? And what did they think would happen when one finally has created the philosophers’ stone? Will the economy collapse because gold and silver will lose their validity? Will the alchemist simply lean back and enjoy? Or will the world end, because man has finally attained the knowledge that should be God’s only?
