<history of philosophy, biography> andalusian Islamic philosopher ( 1126-1198) who responded to the anti-philosophical tirades of al-Ghazālė in Tahafut al tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) by defending the capacity of human reason to achieve knowledge independently of the neoplatonist doctrines of Ibn Sina and Maimonides. Ibn Rushd's exposition of the logical and metaphysical texts of Aristotle earned him the title of "The Commentator" among scholastic thinkers. He subjected theology to the claims of philosophy, holding that matter is eternal and allowing for immortality only as impersonal identification with the Agent Intellect shared by all. His arguments that knowledge is better founded on reason than on faith were greatly influential on Aquinas. Recommended Reading: Oliver Leaman, Averroes and His Philosophy (Oxford, 1994); Averroes and the Enlightenment, ed. by Murad Wahbah and Mona Abousenna (Promethean, 1996); Barry Kogan, Averroes and the Metaphysics of Causation (SUNY, 1985); Roger Arnaldez, Averroes: A Rationalist in Islam, tr. by David Streight (Notre Dame, 2000); Majid Fakhry, Averroes, Aquinas, and the Rediscovery of Aristotle in Western Europe (Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, 1997); and Dominique Urvoy, Ibn Rushd: Averroes, tr. by Olivia Stewart (Routledge, 1991).
[A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names]
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