In class we discussed West Averroes, and his ideals. West Averroes spent a lot of time commenting on Aristotelian thinking; in fact in the Middle Ages in the West "The Philosopher" and "The Commentator" referred to Aristotle and Averroes. His views on physics and metaphysics differed from Aristotle's thinking, and he was not afraid to show his views, or his interpretations of Aristotle's ideas. He also believed from the saying in the Koran "reflect, you have vision," that we are obligated to carry out an intellectual study of beings.
Averroes also had a very interesting idea about allegories. He believed that allegories are everywhere, both in thought and in life (something I very much agree with). But, he thought that things like this, and indeed philosophy in general should not be made known to those people of only middling intelligence. He felt that average people should believe what was literally stated in texts, not attempt to understand the many underlying meanings hidden within a text.
Fact Q 1. What was West Averroes' real name?
Answer: Abu Walid ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd
Thought Q 2. What is the impact of people thinking that only one philosopher, say Aristotle, is worth learning about to explain the theologies and ideas for an entire region or time period of philosophy?
Known in the west as Averroes?
ReplyDeleteThe talk was very interesting on Monday. I think its interesting that averroes is referred to as the commentator. I do not think this title does him justice because it is hard to come up with original ideas and theories if you just comment off others ideas. This is the epitimy of his quote "reflect and you will have vision" because this is exactly what he did with Aristotles ideas. I do not agree that only those of higher intelligence should be the only ones to seek underlying meanings because how is someone to become smarter if they do not question what they read.
ReplyDeleteFactual-When was Averroes born?
April 1126
Discussion-Why do you believe Averroes thought it was better for the uneducated to take everything literally and not look for the hidden meaning?