Middle Commentary on Aristotle's De anima

by ibn Rushd, Alfred L. Ivry (Translation)

Averroës, the greatest Aristotelian of the Islamic philosophical tradition, composed some thirty-eight commentaries on the "First Teacher's" corpus, including three separate treatments of De Anima ("On the Soul"): the works commonly referred to as the Short, Middle, and Long Commentaries. The Middle Commentary—actually Averroës's last writing on the text-remains one of his most refined and politically discreet treatments of Aristotle, offering modern readers Averroës's final statement on the material intellect and conjunction as well as an accessible historical window on Aristotle's work as it was interpreted and transmitted in the medieval period.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion

300 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Arabic version: ابن رشد
Commentaries of well known Arab philosopher, jurist, and physician Averroës or Averrhoës, also ibn Rushd, of Spain on Aristotle exerted a strong influence on medieval Christian theology.

Abu'l-Walid Ibn Rushd, better as Averroes, stands as a towering figure in the history of Islamic as that of west European thought. In the Islamic world, he played a decisive role in the defense of Greeks against the onslaughts of the Ash'arite (Mutakallimun), led by Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, and in the rehabilitation.

A common theme throughout his writings properly understood religion with no incompatibility. His contributions took many forms, ranging from his detailed, his defense against the attacks of those who condemned it as contrary to Islam and his construction of a form, cleansed as far as possible at the time of Neoplatonism.

After centuries of nearly total oblivion in west Europe, world recognition as early as the 13th century contributed to the rediscovery of the master. That instrumental discovery launched Scholasticism in Latin and the Renaissance of the 15th-century Europe in due course. Since the publication of [title:Averroes et l'averroisme] of Ernest Renan in 1852, notwithstanding very little attention to work of Averroes in English, French showed greater interest.

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Reviews

[Connor]

This is a to-read book by Averroes(Ibn Rushd); its probably his most notable work. Averroes was a 12th century Andalusian Arab philospher who lived in Cordoba(then the economic centre of the Almohad caliphate). He is most well known for his many commentaries on Aristotle and Plato, through which he expressed some of his notable philosophical beliefs. His main philosophical rival was Al-Ghazali, who wrote a book as a refutation of his ideas called the incoherence of the philosophers. Averroes then responded to this by writing a 500 page book refutes his refutation called the 'incoherence of the incoherence'.

His ideas are very little remembered in the west today, even though Aquinas and Dante were both inspired by his philosophy. I am glad to see Brigham young islamic texts do an edition of this work in a more popular format.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually I read the short commentary- equates mind with soul but is conflicted about if things in the mind are real or not

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ibn Rushd, or Averroës as he is known in the West, wrote thirty-eight book-length commentaries throughout his life; of these, all except two refer to Aristotle's corpus (the two non-Aristotelian commentaries being on Porphyry's Eisagoge and on Plato's Republic). Averroës usually commented twice on each Aristotelian work in question, yet on five of them he commented three times. De Anima is one of those works deserving of three commentaries, which are marked in English as the "short", "middle", and "long" commentaries – in reference simply to their size relative to one another. The terms do not speak to the particular nature of the commentaries, nor do they necessarily reflect their dates of composition. As Ivry points out in his wonderful introduction to the text, which is in both Arabic (how I wish I could read it) and English, side by side, there is reason to believe that Averroës wrote the Middle after the Long Commentary, or at least while he was already working on the latter.

In any case, what is known as the Middle Commentary is the result of Averroës' commissioning by the Almohad ruler Abū Yūsuf Ya‘qūb al-Manṣūr to explain and clarify Aristotle's text. For this reason, in the Middle Commentary Averroës tends to avoid material that might have either bored (i.e., by being overly convoluted) or offended (i.e., by questioning or opposing orthodox religion) the caliph. Nevertheless, there is much of interest in the Middle Commentary – especially when one compares it to Averroës' views in the Longer Commentary, which are not always congruent, nor does one necessarily constitute a better or more developed view than the other.

The amount of study that went into this particular edition is exemplary. An outstanding introduction situates the work within the latest Averroian scholarship, as well as the historical context of both the Middle Commentary and Averroës himself. Copious footnotes to the text offer depth and clarification, in addition to all the information you might need for further research.