Studies on Plotinus and Al-Kindi

By: Peter Adamson

ISBN-13: 9781472420251
ISBN-10: 147242025X
Publisher: Lund Humphries Publishers
Published date: 2014-08-28
This book collects papers on the greatest philosopher of late antiquity and founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (d.270), and the founding figure of philosophy in the Islamic world: al-Kind? (d. ca. 873). A number of the contributions focus on the text that joins the two: the Theology of Aristotle, in fact an Arabic version of Plotinus’ Enneads produced in al- Kind?’s translation circle. Adamson argues that this translation is best understood as a reinterpretation of Plotinus designed to appeal to contemporary readers in the culture of the ‘Abb?sid era. Other papers look at al-Kind?’s thought, exploring his ideas concerning metaphysics, free will, astrology, and optics. The traditions of Plotinus and al-Kind? are also treated, with papers on Plotinus’ student Porphyry and his Arabic reception, and on followers of al-Kind?. Adamson argues that we can identify a ‘Kindian tradition’ in the 9th-10th centuries. He discusses the philosophical presuppositions of this movement, and the use of al-Kind?’s ideas made by one representative of the Kindian tradition, the Persian thinker Miskawayh.