Averroës' three short commentaries on Aristotle's ''Topics,'' ''Rhetoric,'' and ''Poetics'' PDF
Preview Averroës' three short commentaries on Aristotle's ''Topics,'' ''Rhetoric,'' and ''Poetics''
Acerroës' Three Short Commentaries on Aristotle's "Topics," "Rhetoric," and "Poetics" Averroës' Three Short Commentaries On Aristotle's "Topics," "Rhetoric," and title: "Poetics" Studies in Islamic Philosophy and Science author: Averroèes.; Butterworth, Charles E. publisher: State University of New York Press isbn10 | asin: 0873952081 print isbn13: 9780873952088 ebook isbn13: 9780585018591 language: English Aristotle.--Organon, Logic--Early works to subject 1800. publication date: 1977 lcc: B749.A35B87eb ddc: 160 Aristotle.--Organon, Logic--Early works to subject: 1800. Page ii STUDIES IN ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE Published under the auspices of the Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science EDITORIAL BOARD George F. Hourani, State University of New York at Buffalo Muhsin Mahdi, Harvard University Parviz Morewedge, Baruch College of City University of New York Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh Ehsan Yar-Shater, Columbia University Page iii Averroës Three Short Commentaries on Aristotle's "Topics, Rhetoric, and "Poetics Edited and Translated by Charles E. Butterworth ALBANY STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS 1977 Page iv UNESCO COLLECTION OF REPRESENTATIVE WORKS ARABIC SERIES This book has been accepted in the Arabic Series of the Translations Collection of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) First Edition Published by State University of New York Press 99 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12246 © 1977 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Averroës, 1126-1198. Averroës' three short commentaries on Aristotle's "Topics," "Rhetoric," and ''Poetics." (Studies in Islamic Philosophy and Science) Arabic and English. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Aristoteles. Organon. 2. LogicEarly works to 1800. I. Butterworth, Charles E. II. Title. III. Series. B749.A35B87 160 75-4900 ISBN 0-87395-208-1 Page v To My Wife Page vii Preface There was a time when Dante could be certain that even an oblique reference to Averroës would be immediately understood by any of his readers. Indeed, over the course of several centuries, fierce debate raged around the philosophy of Averroës: he was either extolled as the foremost interpreter of Aristotle or vilified as the gravest menace to Christian faith. Schools devoted to the study and propagation of his commentaries on Aristotle flourished, while others zealously committed to combatting the teachings of those commentaries had equal success. Today, mention of his name evokes no passions, prompts no discussions; rather, reference to Averroës is usually met with querulous stares. Even in learned circles, little is known about the man and still less about his teachings. The contemporary neglect of Averroës can be traced to the very reason for his celebrity during the Middle Ages: his reputation as the commentator on Aristotle. Today, few people are interested in either Aristotle or commentary. Philosophic study having been reduced to scientific method or general culture, the passion for serious discussion about perennial problems has waned. Thus knowledge of, much less interest in, the problems raised by Aristotle is slight, and desire for acquaintance with the momentous debates those problems have occasioned nil. Moreover, with the spread of the assumption that all things evolve through time, inventiveness has come to be acclaimed the mark of excellent thought and commentary condemned as imitative or servile. Consequently, Averroës has been judged as neither meriting an important place in the history of philosophy nor deserving particular study. Even those still attracted to the philosophy of Aristotle are little inclined to study the commentaries by Averroës. They seem to consider the recovery of the Greek manuscripts as having diminished the significance of those commentaries. In their eyes, Averroës performed the Page viii historical function of preserving Aristotle's thought until the sources could be recovered, but his importance goes no further. As a result, Averroës has become a figure of mild curiosity, a thinker to be studied by orientalists or backward looking scholastics. For many reasons, the contemporary neglect of Averroës is unfortunate. Like Aristotle, Averroës addressed himself to theoretical and practical questions of concern to human beings in all ages. As long as it is possible to wonder about the origin of the world or the basis of political justice, serious minds can delight in careful consideration of Aristotle's ideas and in Averroës's interpretative presentation of those ideas. To such minds his use of the commentary can be especially instructive, for the art of commenting was completely transformed in his hands. Far from a servile imitation or literal repetition, Averroës presented a unique interpretation of Aristotle's ideas under the guise of a commentary. Indeed, an attentive reading of Averroës's commentaries with the texts of Aristotle shows that arguments Aristotle had made are often omitted, notions foreign to his thought sometimes added, and on occasion arguments even invented in his name. Hence the recovery of the Greek manuscripts does not render Averröes's commentaries obsolete. On the contrary, their recovery makes the study of those commentaries immensely more fascinating. As the thought of Aristotle is laid bare and compared with the interpretation presented by Averroës, new questions about the meaning of the interpretation, as well as about the significance of the distortion, arise. At that point the reader can begin to appreciate the special relationship between the scholarly task of uncovering the thought of someone else and the philosophic task of making that thought one's own. Once Averroës's use of the commentary acquires this kind of problematic significance, his reputation as the commentator on Aristotle can again occasion serious reflection. The treatises presented here are especially helpful for reassessing the importance of Averroës. Nowhere has he been so audaciously liberal with the text of Aristotle as in these treatises or in the larger collection from which they are taken. That larger collection has long been presumed to represent Averroës's Short Commentary on Aristotle's Organon. It does represent that short commentary, but a short commentary which transforms the Organon by adding a non- Aristotelian treatise, as well as Aristotelian treatises not belonging to what is usually understood to be the Organon, and by changing the order of
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