Al-Kindi

This comparative examination of Nietzsche and the Islamic philosopher al-Kindi emphasizes their mutual commitment to the recovery of classical Greek and Hellenistic thought and the idea of philosophy as a way of life. Affiliating both thinkers with the Stoic lineage in particular, I examine the ways in which they appropriate common themes such as fatalism, self-cultivation via spiritual exercises, and the banishing of sorrow. Focusing primarily on their respective conceptions of self and nature, I argue that the antipodal worldviews of al-Kindi and Nietzsche can be understood as a bifurcation of Stoic philosophy.

يقدّم هذا الكتاب نتائج رسالتي الدكتورة، وهي الفرضية التاريخية بتأليف رسائل إخوان الصفا عند أحمد بن الطيب السرخسي من ناحية، والتفسير لها كنظام فلسفي يشمل العلوم والمذاهب كلها تحت منطق عددي فيثاغورسي. ء
و نُشرَ هذا الكتاب في الهيئة العامة المصرية للكتاب وسلستها "تبسيط التراث"ء

This article presents Al-Kindi as the first Arab intercultural curriculum theorizer, rather than the first Arab philosopher as often argued. He envisioned an intercultural and interdisciplinary curriculum within the Arabic intellectual tradition. This article proposes Al-Kindism as a conceptual framework for education that revisits interdisciplinary and intercultural possibilities geared toward conflict resolution and synthesis. It also explores how Al-Kindi was arguably the first in the Arabic intellectual tradition to initiate a move from Majlis to Minhaj, that is from Masjid learning practices centered on theological studies to schooling. In other words, in the absence of actual schooling, his educational vision offered a possibility of a conceptualized curriculum to be taught. Al-Kindi’s scholarly eagerness was driven not necessarily by, as generally perceived, the desire to promote philosophy, but more importantly, by the need to develop an intellectually responsive educational tradition to accommodate emerging intercultural encounters. In his attempt to eliminate the tension between Greek thought and the Islamic culture, he believed that the acquisition of true knowledge could only be achieved through intercultural competence. Thus, as a curriculum theorizer, Al-Kindi initiated a Minhaj marked by indebtedness to intercultural encounters, by a shift away from Majlis, and by the implementation of interdisciplinarity.

Title: The Origins of Renaissance Perspective Theory
Author: WANG Zheran
Published: Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2019
Description: 291 pages
Language: Chinese
Series: Tsinghua Studies on History and Philosophy of Science
Identifier: ISBN 978–7–100–17110–6

This book tries to provide a historical explanation of the intellectual context of Renaissance linear perspective, a continuous narrative of the evolution of the science of vision from the Ancient Greek to the 15th-century. There is a long-time argument about why the ancient Chinese did not invent linear perspective. Most contemporary Chinese scholars tend to attribute the reason to the difference of the ways of thinking or the concepts of space between the East and the West. In the author's opinion, however, the scholars ignore the basic fact that ancient Chinese had never developed a mathematical approach dealing with the problems of vision and light. Thus, it would be strange and need an explanation if they had invented such a painting method. The reason for this prominent overlook is that the history of western optics, especially of the ancient and medieval period, is still barely known in Chinese scholarship. The book aims to fill in this gap.

The Introduction chapter of the book starts with a criticism of Erwin Panofsky's misinterpretation of the relationship between Euclidean optics and linear perspective. Then the author clarifies the meaning, usage, and Chinese translation of several critical terms, such as optics, perspective, and perspectiva. The last part of the chapter offers a literature review of contemporary western scholarship in this field, mainly discussed the work of Maurice H. Pirenne, Samuel Edgerton Jr., Kim Veltman, Martin Kemp, Judith V. Field, David Lindberg, Dominique Raynaud, Kirsti Andersen, and Mark Smith.

The first chapter traces the basic concepts of linear perspective back to the research of vision in Ancient Greek. Aristotle first stated the feasibility and necessity of applying geometry into the problem of vision and light. Euclid axiomatized the known optical propositions. Both Euclidean optics and linear perspective based on the concept of the visual cone. However, the target of the two is different. Euclidean optics aims to describe visual appearance by using the visual cone, while linear perspective seeks to construct a pictorial representation on an intersection plane within the visual cone. The chapter also discusses the possibilities of the invention of linear perspective in the ancient. Theoretically speaking, the four survey theorems in Euclid's Optics and propositions in Catoptrics could be used in perspective construction. The existence of scenography also showed that ancient Greeks and Romans had been applied the optics into painting. However, they never propose a strict theory of linear perspective.

The second chapter studies the science of vision in the Middle Ages. Al-Kindi found the principle of punctiform analysis of light and visual ray. By synthesizing the optics and the physiology of the eye, Ibn al-Haytham suggested that vision generates from the image formed on the anterior surface of glacial humor, introducing a new conception of the image. Thus, the picture plane, which is the intersection across the visual pyramid in linear perspective construction, could be viewed as an exteriorization of the front surface of the lens of the eye. Roger Bacon and other perspectivists carried on the legacy of Arabic optics. They conceived that natural causes agree with the multiplication of species, ascribed the function of metaphysics to perspectiva, facilitated the communication of optical knowledge in Latin West.

The third chapter focuses on the early 15th-century Florence, where the first modern theory of linear perspective emerged. It argues that the birth of linear perspective was a triumph by making a combination of the theoretical optics and practical experience of artisans. Brunelleschi conducted two perspectival experiments, demonstrated that perspective painting could reproduce visual illusions. In On Painting, Alberti suggested that perspective constitutes the paradigm or grammar for the language of the painter, namely geometrical figures. Thus the art of painting could be regarded as a science or a liberal art. He clarified the optical principles on which linear perspective depends, and gave an operative and effective construction method. Lorenzo Gilberti's private note The Third Commentary, a work of transcription and translation of medieval perspectiva treatise, reflects the considerable enthusiasm of artisans for learning the knowledge of optics.

The fourth chapter pays attention to the works of Piero Della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci, who intended to systemized the theory of perspective in the second half of the 15th century. In On Perspective of Painting, Piero organized the propositions and examples of perspective into an axiomatic system. By following the structure of Euclid's Optics, he put forward two construction methods and proved the validity of perspective. He also raised the problems on edge distortion but failed to offer a rigorous solution. Leonardo invented a more comprehensive system of perspective, in which each visual effect could be expressed by one perspectival technique. In this system, the category of linear perspective, color perspective, and distinction perspective based on three visible qualities, the division of natural perspective and accidental perspective based on the size of visual angle, and finally, the division of compound perspective and simple perspective based on the usage of a plain or a spherical intersection. Besides, Leonardo generalized the inverse size/distance law in linear perspective as Pyramid Law, which was used by him to explain the quantitative relationship in statics, mechanics, and motion. This fact indicates that medieval perspectiva had a significant influence on Leonardo's research on nature.

The book primarily is based on the author's Ph.D. dissertation (Peking University, 2017).​

Craig has argued that the universe has a beginning because (1) the infinitude of the past entails the existence of actual infinite multitudes of past intervals of time, and (2) the existence of actual infinite multitudes is impossible. Puryear has rejected (1) and argued that what the infinitude of the past entails is only the existence of an actual infinite magnitude of past time. But this does not preclude the infinitude of the past, Puryear claims, because there can be no justification for the claim that actual infinite magnitudes are impossible. I argue, against Puryear, that there can be such a justification. I claim, nevertheless, that for reasons entirely different from Puryear’s, the finitude of the past cannot be established based either on the impossibility of actual infinite multitudes or the impossibility of actual infinite magnitudes. My arguments in this paper draw on insights from al-Kindī and Avicenna.

Mehmet Bulğen Criticisms of Atomism in Classical Islamic Thought presents the criticisms of kalām atomism, which were proposed by significant thinkers from the kalām, falsafa, and Zahiriyya traditions in the Islamic Intellectual history. The book also touches upon the atomists’ responses to those criticisms. The presentation of these ideas relies upon a remarkable use of the primary and secondary sources. Although the author presents the discussions on the critique of atomism in great detail, he does not take a definite position on identifying the most plausible view.

Questo volume raccoglie gli atti del convegno nazionale dell'Associazione Italiana Alexander von Humboldt, tenutosi presso il Centro italo-tedesco per il dialogo europeo Villa Vigoni, (Loveno di Menaggio) dall'11 al 14 aprile 2019. Il convegno, dal titolo Kosmos nel XXI Secolo, dedicato alla celebrazione dei 250 anni dalla nascita di Alexander von Humboldt, si è proposto come una rivisitazione in chiave attuale dell'ultimo lavoro di Humboldt e suo testamento spirituale Kosmos-Entwurf einer physi-schen Weltbeschreibung. Partendo dalla immagine integrata e coerente del cosmo proposta da Humboldt, il convegno si è delineato come una vivace occasione di dibattito interdisciplinare su questioni di interesse globale e di grande attualità. Temi inerenti al fabbisogno energeti-co, alla biodiversità, ai viaggi, alla comunicazione, alle migrazioni, alla poesia, alla storia e alla geografia sono stati affrontati con interesse e spirito costruttivo tra discipline scientifiche e umanistiche nel suggestivo contesto di Villa Vigoni e del lago di Como. Villa Vigoni Editore | Verlag è la casa editrice di Villa Vigoni, Centro italo-tedesco per il dialogo europeo con sede a Loveno di Menaggio sul lago di Como e unica istituzione binazionale italo-tedesca in Italia. Attraverso differenti formati l'attività editoriale e pubblici-stica di Villa Vigoni mira all'approfondimento di argomenti specifici nell'ambito di discipline diverse, sempre affrontati da una prospettiva italo-tedesca nel contesto europeo.

Arka Kapak:
İlk Müslüman filozof diye nitelendirilen Kindî, kendisinin de katkıda bulunduğu tercüme faaliyetleriyle İslam dünyasında felsefi ilimlerin teşekkülünde önemli rol almıştır. Fizik, metafizik, mantık gibi birçok alanda çeşitli eserler kaleme alan filozof, “İlk Felsefe” üzerine de müstakil bir risale kaleme almıştır. İlk Felsefe’nin İlk Hakikat/Gerçek’in bilgisi ve bu nedenle de ilimlerin en değerlisi olduğunu ifade eden Kindî, Tanrı’yı sebeplilik bağlamında ele alarak O’nu sebeplerin sebebi olarak nitelendirmiştir. İslam düşünce tarihinde bu anlayışa yönelik en ciddi ve sert eleştiri İbn Hazm tarafından yapılmıştır. Kindî’nin Tanrı’yı sebeplilik ilişkisi içerisinde ele alması İbn Hazm’a göre sorunludur. Ona göre Tanrı tarafından hiçbir şekilde sözü edilmeyen bu görüşün ne dini ne de mantıki bir dayanağı olabilir.
Elinizdeki bu eserin çevirisiyle, İbn Hazm gibi zahiri diye nitelendirilen ve mantıksal düşünce ile felsefeye yönelik ciddi eleştirileri olan bir âlimin Kindî’ye yönelik eleştirilerini, bunların geçerliliğini ve tutarlılığını müzakereye açıyoruz.