Philosopher · Medieval
Averroes (Ibn Rushd)
1126–1198 · Aristotelianism (Averroism)
Qadi of Córdoba and physician; “the Commentator” to the Latin West, whom Dante places among the virtuous pagans in Limbo.
Averroes wrote the great commentaries on Aristotle that taught the Latin universities, defended philosophy against al-Ghazali in the Incoherence of the Incoherence, and in the Decisive Treatise argued that the Law commands demonstration and that Scripture must be read allegorically where it conflicts with it. He held the eternity of the world and the unicity of the material intellect for all men, and denied a personal immortality of the intellect.
Why he matters: St. Thomas learned Aristotle through him and then fought him: “Latin Averroism” (Siger of Brabant, Boethius of Dacia) with its eternal world, single intellect and apparent “double truth” was condemned at Paris in 1270 and 1277, and answered in Thomas's On the Unity of the Intellect; the whole Catholic settlement of faith and reason was forged in that quarrel.
Where to be careful
The eternity of the world is contrary to Lateran IV and Vatican I (creation “from the beginning of time”); the unicity of the intellect denies the individual immortal soul (Lateran V, 1513); the subjection of revelation to demonstration and the “double truth” attributed to his followers are the Averroism rejected in Dei Filius ch. 4; as a Muslim he denies the Incarnation.
Reading
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The Decisive Treatise (Fasl al-maqal)Averroes · The short charter of philosophy under the Law.
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On the Unity of the Intellect against the AverroistsSt. Thomas Aquinas · Thomas's reply on the soul.
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Thomas Aquinas and Radical AristotelianismFernand Van Steenberghen · The Louvain historian on the 1270s crisis.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each question the test asks.