Does the Renaissance have roots in Islamic philosophy?

Natalia Vorontsova interviews Prof. Peter Adamson about the importance of Islamic philosophy for Western thought. Although little known in the West, philosophers such as Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) played an absolutely crucial role in preserving, building on, and transmitting to the West the wisdom of Aristotle, Plato, and the Neoplatonists during the Middle Ages. Similarly, Suhrawardī's Philosophy of Illumination and Ibn Arabī's doctrine of the Unity of Being continue to influence Western thought to this day. If we want to understand the history of European philosophy, we cannot ignore these influential scholars and sages.
This video has human-created English subtitles, so don't forget to click on the 'CC' button below the video to enable them.

00:00 Intro
00:02:07 The Renaissance and Islamic philosophy
00:10:46 Perennial wisdom and translation movements
00:15:39 Western thought: footnotes to Plato?
00:18:09 Why did the scientific revolution take place in Europe and not in the Islamic world?
00:24:52 Mathematical and mechanistic approaches to nature
00:31:14 Islamic philosophy: followers of Aristotle or Plato & Neoplatonism?
00:36:51 Idealism? Materialism? Something else?
00:43:42 Influence of Islamic philosophy on post-classical European thought
00:46:45 The metaphysics of Avicenna
00:49:58 Avicenna on the mind-body problem
00:53:44 Followers of Avicenna: Suhrawardi and his metaphysics
01:01:07 Suhrawardi: intuitive versus discursive philosophy
01:06:32 Surhawardi: the non-dual approach
01:08:52 Saladin and the fate of Suhrawardi
01:13:17 Ibn Arabi, his metaphysics and Sufi philosophy
01:22:23 Conclusions: the role of Islamic philosophy
01:27:13 Recommended reading
01:28:25 An afterthought

Copyright © 2023 by Essentia Foundation. All rights reserved.

[HABEEBS]

MashaAllah that was such an engaging conversation. I can hear this for any number of hours. Natalia's ending comments made me enthralled and my eyes welled up. Thanks a ton for such a wonderful session ❤

[liminally-spacious]

Awesome interview. Thank you so much for the overview of Islamic philosophy. I find the emanationist tradition fascinating.

[dorothysatterfield]

Many thanks. And now I've discovered yet another podcast I have to catch up on.

[maxheadrom]

Very interesting! Thank you! I would love to see something about the influence of Christianity in the development of science. Thanks!

[Jacob-Vivimord]

What is the context of this video? How is it related to the purpose of the channel? It seemed Adamson was saying there wasn't a great deal of monistic idealism metaphysics in Islamic philosophy.

[nitahill]

A really enjoyable and informative discussion! Prof. Adamson framing of the contribution of the Islamic world to Western philosophy was illuminating. Unfortunately my own reading had been very haphazard and the structure he provided was greatly appreciated. Thank you both for your time and attention.

[TheGerogero]

I would like to know to what degree figures of the "Islamic Golden Age" could more accurately be referred to as Persian.

[spiritfilled]

I appreciate this channel and the heart behind the work being done through the Essentia Foundation, to benefit humanity, .❤

[konnektlive]

As a scholar of Persian philosophies, that's actually pretty sad that Mr Adamson in this video doesn't even mention the importance of Zoroastrianism, and all the fundamental ideas within it and their influence and impact on Suhrawardi as well as many other philosophers before and after him. In fact, the very core teachings and philosophy of Zoroaster is based upon Angra Mainyu the Force or God of darkness, and Ahura Mazda the supreme God of light. Far from being a dualist, Suhrawardi utilised such ancient Persian ideas, and actually directly mentions the ancient Persian sages (Persian Maguses) that heavily influenced later philosophers such as Plotinus, Plato and even Pythagoras.

Suhrawardi actually is well known as the 'reviver of the (so-called) Persian paganism" from the point of view of many stricted Islamic scholars of his time, hence his famous execution, and martyrdom. Hikmat al Ishraq (حکمت الآشراق) actually means "wisdom of the East or wisdom of the mystical East". There are fundamental differences between Suhrawardi' core ideas with Aristotle, Avicenna, and most other philosophers before and after him. Again, he actually mentions in the first chapter of his magnum opus that his Hikmat Al Ishraq is from both his mystical experiences and insights, as well as the philosophies to back them up intellectually. Sadly your guest doesn't at all mention the most important idea of Suhrawardi, which is his approach and in a way attempt to revive the ancient Persian mystical traditions and schools of philosophy, which is directly related to the notion of light and illumination (which again is reflected in Zoroastrianism as the religion of light). His core idea of Light of the Lights (نور الانوار) is taken directly from the ancient Persian idea of Vohu Manah (modern Persian 'Bahman"), which is a Zoroastrian Amshaspand (one of the main archetypical cosmic force/archangel) that in most interpretations can be equated to the idea of Logos.

This is a broad topic indeed, but I assume Mr Adamson isn't really familiar enough with the Persian language to be able to study the first hand materials, hence his ignorance and very incomplete picture he is trying to portrait in this video. I'm just leaving this comment for the future readers, but I'm open to provide reliable links and more information if people are interested to know more.

[carlosg]

Thank you for this enligtning conversation. I would just like to say that addressing the influence of islamic thought in the Renaissance, was due largely to the influence of Gemisto Plato who introduced greek philosophy to Florence thru the traslations of the greek philosophers by the islamic thinkers who actually rescued them for us.

[MartyMcK]

Neo Platonic which also influenced Christianity and Kabbalah.

[Sikeena]

Having researched at length the influence of Islamic philosophy on the European Renaissance, I found this discussion to be very interesting. In my Master's Dissertation, submitted to the Warburg Institute in Sept 2022, I delve into this question in-depth; particularly linking the continuities of thought between classical Islamic philosophy and Pico della Mirandola. In my thesis, I investigate the “wondrous” nature of humankind with which Pico opens his famous Oration (on the Dignity of Man) finding parallels in classical Islamic humanism, which elevates humankind to a station above the angels by virtue of their intellect. I specifically focus on the ideas of Ibn Ṭufayl whose seminal work Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān eschews societal norms as well as the acceptance of dogma and tradition (taqlīd) in favour of intellectual thought and rationalism (Ijtihād). I argue that Pico della Mirandola follows a similar trajectory, that favours philosophy over revealed religion, thereby elevating (according to Pico) the human being from the beastly mores of medieval European philosophy towards the loftier realms of the studia humanitatis that encapsulates the humanism of the Quattrocento. It is wonderful to see as celebrated a scholar of the history of philosophy as Peter Adamson, picking up on this topic

[HigoWapsico]

The House of Kastrup is on 🔥🔥🔥

Thank you, this was excellent.
Having a hard time trusting any academics/experts these days, but this was interesting and enjoyable…

Apropos “Dark Ages/Renaissance” If I may offer a guest suggestion, Steve Patterson…

[clintjones]

I think that if Islam has never happened, Renaissance would indeed be very different. I suspect there would be no Schism (as there would be Pentarchy) and thoughts and writings of Antic world would be much more ready available in Europe. Therefore Renaissance would have happened much faster.

[AndresWalsh]

Dies Prof. Peter Adamson ever address East Asian philosophy in his Philosophy Without Any Gaps series?

[nitahill]

And as an aside...Were any Islamic thinkers influenced by the Pre-Socratics?

[sxsmith]

He doesn’t seem to be aware of BK’s analytic idealism and she didn’t define it for him at 38 min in.

[akramelmansouri]

Why call it islamic philosophy and compare it to a European one? Islam as it is in the texts it claims devine has nothing to do with th philosophies that emerged at its time, and it would be an insult to all philosophers and scientists of the time to do so. I would call it at least - as you refer to European philosophy - a middle eastern philosophy. Even better? "Arabic philosophy" as many scholars like to refer to it, since some of these "islamic philosophies" were produced by non Muslims !

[gngzvnb]

Lets call Islamic philosophy/ science as West Asian philosophy/ science just like Indian, chinese & European philosophy.

[levous]

Sorry but this guy is just missing everything important about this topic. It wasn’t because of cultural reform that Europe progressed while others stayed behind. It was the paper mill and then the printing press and exponentially accelerated the advancement and exchange of ideas that rapidly transformed the western culture, including the foundations of philosophical and religious belief. The Islamic world banned the printing press, with the penalty of death, as an unholy device. If not for that one catastrophically poor decision, the world would have progressed in unison.

It’s ridiculous that Adamson says, “I don't think its that sensible
to spend a lot of effort trying to explain why things don't happen.” Seriously?! Isn’t that rather an important question? And is technology and access to information not a pretty profound reason why Europe went on to dominate globally for centuries?

I’m sure he’s a smart guy but what a closed minded discussion!