Aristotelianism and the Soul in the Arabic Plotinus

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 62, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 211-232

  Adamson, Peter ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0041832039     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3654355     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. For the Arabic text of Ibn Sīnā's notes, see ' Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aristū'inda 'l-'Arab (Cairo, 1947), 37-74; French translation in George Vajda, "Les notes d'Avicenne sur la 'Théologie d'Aristote,' " Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 346-406. See also Jules Janssens, "Creation and Emanation in Ibn Sina," Documenti e studi sulla traduzione filosofica medievale, 8 (1997), 455-77, and Louis Gardet, "En l'honneur du millénaire d'Avicenne: L'importance d'un texte nouvellement traduit: les gloses d'Avicenna sur la pseudo Théologie d'Aristote," Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 333-45.
2. For the Arabic text of Ibn Sīnā's notes, see ' Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aristū'inda 'l- 'Arab (Cairo, 1947), 37-74; French translation in George Vajda, "Les notes d'Avicenne sur la 'Théologie d'Aristote,' " Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 346-406. See also Jules Janssens, "Creation and Emanation in Ibn Sina," Documenti e studi sulla traduzione filosofica medievale, 8 (1997), 455-77, and Louis Gardet, "En l'honneur du millénaire d'Avicenne: L'importance d'un texte nouvellement traduit: les gloses d'Avicenna sur la pseudo Théologie d'Aristote," Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 333-45.
3. For the Arabic text of Ibn Sīnā's notes, see ' Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aristū'inda 'l- 'Arab (Cairo, 1947), 37-74; French translation in George Vajda, "Les notes d'Avicenne sur la 'Théologie d'Aristote,' " Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 346-406. See also Jules Janssens, "Creation and Emanation in Ibn Sina," Documenti e studi sulla traduzione filosofica medievale, 8 (1997), 455-77, and Louis Gardet, "En l'honneur du millénaire d'Avicenne: L'importance d'un texte nouvellement traduit: les gloses d'Avicenna sur la pseudo Théologie d'Aristote," Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 333-45.
4. For the Arabic text of Ibn Sīnā's notes, see ' Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aristū'inda 'l- 'Arab (Cairo, 1947), 37-74; French translation in George Vajda, "Les notes d'Avicenne sur la 'Théologie d'Aristote,' " Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 346-406. See also Jules Janssens, "Creation and Emanation in Ibn Sina," Documenti e studi sulla traduzione filosofica medievale, 8 (1997), 455-77, and Louis Gardet, "En l'honneur du millénaire d'Avicenne: L'importance d'un texte nouvellement traduit: les gloses d'Avicenna sur la pseudo Théologie d'Aristote," Revue Thomiste, 51 (1951), 333-45.
5. See Maroun Aouad, "La Théologie d'Aristote et autres textes du Plotinus Arabus," Dictionnaire des Philosophes Antiques, ed. Richard Goulet (Paris, 1989), 541-90, and F. W. Zimmermann, "The Origins of the So Called Theology of Aristotle," in Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages: The Theology and Other Texts, ed. Jill Kraye, W. F. Ryan, and C. B. Schmitt (London, 1986), 110-240.
6. See Maroun Aouad, "La Théologie d'Aristote et autres textes du Plotinus Arabus," Dictionnaire des Philosophes Antiques, ed. Richard Goulet (Paris, 1989), 541-90, and F. W. Zimmermann, "The Origins of the So Called Theology of Aristotle," in Pseudo-Aristotle in the Middle Ages: The Theology and Other Texts, ed. Jill Kraye, W. F. Ryan, and C. B. Schmitt (London, 1986), 110-240.
7. See Richard C. Taylor, "Aquinas, the Plotiniana Arabica and the Metaphysics of Being and Actuality," JHI, 59 (1998), 241-64, and Cristina D'Ancona Costa, "Il tema della 'docta ignorantia' nel neoplatonismo arabo. Un contributo all'analisi delle fonti di 'Teologia di Aristotele,' mimar II," in Concordia Discors: Studi offerti a Giovanni Santinello (Medioevo e Umanismo 84) (Padua 1993) 3-22; "Divine and Human Knowledge in the Plotiniana Arabica," in John L. Cleary (ed.), The Perennial Tradition of Neoplatonism (Leuven, 1997), 419-42, and Recherches sur le Liber de Causis (Paris, 1995).
8. See Richard C. Taylor, "Aquinas, the Plotiniana Arabica and the Metaphysics of Being and Actuality," JHI, 59 (1998), 241-64, and Cristina D'Ancona Costa, "Il tema della 'docta ignorantia' nel neoplatonismo arabo. Un contributo all'analisi delle fonti di 'Teologia di Aristotele,' mimar II," in Concordia Discors: Studi offerti a Giovanni Santinello (Medioevo e Umanismo 84) (Padua 1993) 3-22; "Divine and Human Knowledge in the Plotiniana Arabica," in John L. Cleary (ed.), The Perennial Tradition of Neoplatonism (Leuven, 1997), 419-42, and Recherches sur le Liber de Causis (Paris, 1995).
9. See Richard C. Taylor, "Aquinas, the Plotiniana Arabica and the Metaphysics of Being and Actuality," JHI, 59 (1998), 241-64, and Cristina D'Ancona Costa, "Il tema della 'docta ignorantia' nel neoplatonismo arabo. Un contributo all'analisi delle fonti di 'Teologia di Aristotele,' mimar II," in Concordia Discors: Studi offerti a Giovanni Santinello (Medioevo e Umanismo 84) (Padua 1993) 3-22; "Divine and Human Knowledge in the Plotiniana Arabica," in John L. Cleary (ed.), The Perennial Tradition of Neoplatonism (Leuven, 1997), 419-42, and Recherches sur le Liber de Causis (Paris, 1995).
10. See Richard C. Taylor, "Aquinas, the Plotiniana Arabica and the Metaphysics of Being and Actuality," JHI, 59 (1998), 241-64, and Cristina D'Ancona Costa, "Il tema della 'docta ignorantia' nel neoplatonismo arabo. Un contributo all'analisi delle fonti di 'Teologia di Aristotele,' mimar II," in Concordia Discors: Studi offerti a Giovanni Santinello (Medioevo e Umanismo 84) (Padua 1993) 3-22; "Divine and Human Knowledge in the Plotiniana Arabica," in John L. Cleary (ed.), The Perennial Tradition of Neoplatonism (Leuven, 1997), 419-42, and Recherches sur le Liber de Causis (Paris, 1995).
11. Supporting this are not only the arguments given by Zimmermann but also terminological and stylistic parallels between the Arabic Plotinus and other texts associated with Al-Kindī's circle: see Gerhard Endress, Proclus Arabus. Zwanzig Abschnitte aus der Institutio theologica in arabischer Übersetzung (Wiesbaden, 1973), 76-185, and 186ff.
12. Though the use of this Syriac term has been taken by some as evidence for the identity of the author, such loan-words were not uncommon in the Arabic translation movement under the " Abbāsids. Thus Zimmermann (151) does not regard the term as evidence for a Syriac intermediary text.
13. Paul Kraus, "Plotin chez les Arabes: Remarques sur un nouveau fragment de la parapnrase arabe des Ennéades," Bulletin de l'Institut d'Ègypte, 23 (1941), 263-95.
14. Most Arabic texts in 'Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aflūtīn 'inda 'l-'Arab (Cairo, 1955); English translation by Geoffrey Lewis, based on his improved (but unpublished) edition of the Arabic text, in Plotini Opera II, Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolph Schwyzer (eds.), Plotini Opera (Paris 1959). For Rosenthal's work on the "Greek sage" (al-shaikh al-yūnānī) see "Ash-Shayh al-Yūnānī and the Arabic Plotinus Source," Orientalia, 21 (1952), 461-92; 22 (1953), 370-400; 24 (1955), 42-66.
15. Most Arabic texts in 'Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aflūtīn 'inda 'l-'Arab (Cairo, 1955); English translation by Geoffrey Lewis, based on his improved (but unpublished) edition of the Arabic text, in Plotini Opera II, Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolph Schwyzer (eds.), Plotini Opera (Paris 1959). For Rosenthal's work on the "Greek sage" (al-shaikh al-yūnānī) see "Ash-Shayh al-Yūnānī and the Arabic Plotinus Source," Orientalia, 21 (1952), 461-92; 22 (1953), 370-400; 24 (1955), 42-66.
16. Most Arabic texts in 'Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aflūtīn 'inda 'l-'Arab (Cairo, 1955); English translation by Geoffrey Lewis, based on his improved (but unpublished) edition of the Arabic text, in Plotini Opera II, Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolph Schwyzer (eds.), Plotini Opera (Paris 1959). For Rosenthal's work on the "Greek sage" (al-shaikh al-yūnānī) see "Ash-Shayh al-Yūnānī and the Arabic Plotinus Source," Orientalia, 21 (1952), 461-92; 22 (1953), 370-400; 24 (1955), 42-66.
17. Most Arabic texts in 'Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aflūtīn 'inda 'l-'Arab (Cairo, 1955); English translation by Geoffrey Lewis, based on his improved (but unpublished) edition of the Arabic text, in Plotini Opera II, Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolph Schwyzer (eds.), Plotini Opera (Paris 1959). For Rosenthal's work on the "Greek sage" (al-shaikh al-yūnānī) see "Ash-Shayh al-Yūnānī and the Arabic Plotinus Source," Orientalia, 21 (1952), 461-92; 22 (1953), 370-400; 24 (1955), 42-66.
18. Most Arabic texts in 'Abdurrahman Badawī (ed.), Aflūtīn 'inda 'l-'Arab (Cairo, 1955); English translation by Geoffrey Lewis, based on his improved (but unpublished) edition of the Arabic text, in Plotini Opera II, Paul Henry and Hans-Rudolph Schwyzer (eds.), Plotini Opera (Paris 1959). For Rosenthal's work on the "Greek sage" (al-shaikh al-yūnānī) see "Ash-Shayh al-Yūnānī and the Arabic Plotinus Source," Orientalia, 21 (1952), 461-92; 22 (1953), 370-400; 24 (1955), 42-66.
19. Zimmermann, 112-13, 128-31.
20. Arabic edition in al-Kindī, Rasā'il al-Kindī, ed. Muhammad 'Abdalhādī Abū Rīda (Cairo, 1950-53). For the Discourse on the Soul, see 272-80.
21. Arabic edition in al-Kindī, Rasā'il al-Kindī, ed. Muhammad 'Abdalhādī Abū Rīda (Cairo, 1950-53). For the Discourse on the Soul, see 272-80.
22. Zimmermann, 117.
23. Aristotle, On the Soul, tr. W. S. Hett (Cambridge, 1957).
24. Enneads, vol. IV-VII, tr. A. H. Armstrong (Cambridge, 1984-88). All translations in the paper are my own, though I have consulted Lewis's translation of AP and Armstrong's translation of Plotinus. When citing AP, I will give the section number from Lewis's translation, followed by the page number from Badawī's edition in brackets.
25. Rüdiger Arnzen, Aristoteles 'De Anima: eine verlorene spätantike Paraphrase in arabischer und persischer Überlieferung (Köln, 1998). All citations from the Arabic paraphrase of De Anima are from this text, with page number followed by line number. Notice that the elements of the De Anima definition not used here by the Adaptor, namely the words al-tamām and tab ī'ī, are used nearby in 111.67 and III.76. The original passage in the De Anima is at 412a27-28.
26. Reading bi-al-quwa.
27. I am indebted to Prof. Richard Taylor for bringing to my attention the importance of this distinction here.
28. See, for instance, Enn IV.8.1.
29. Compare Aristotle's comments at Metaphysics H.4, 1044a33-1044b11, where he stresses the need to mention the material cause in giving an account of generated substances.
30. I read the sense of the Arabic differently from Lewis: the Adaptor is asking whether the division of the soul is essential or accidental, not whether the soul is an accident. Lewis also translates tatajazza 'u as "particularized," which is somewhat misleading.
31. See Th.A VI.26-29, and the parallel mention of the alogos psuchēi at Enn IV.4.40.25; also Th.A VI.49-50, with the Greek phrase used at Enn IV.4.43 lines 8 and 12.
32. See also Th.A IX.64 (B 129): "We say that the proof that the soul is in this world through some of its faculties and is in the intellectual world through the rest of its faculties is justice, righteousness, and the other excellences." This passage, incidentally, makes a completely differ-ent point from that made in the parallel Greek text, which argues that virtue exists discursively in soul, and non-discursively in nous.
33. Reading akhiss with Lewis. Badawī's reading, which makes no sense in this context, would have "more beautiful than every beauty."
34. See the linguistic parallels between this paraphrase and AP, as well as other products of al-Kindï's circle, provided by Arnzen, 108-14; also Endress, 189.
35. Arnzen, 115.
36. Arnzen, 115-17.
37. Arnzen, 117. Note that in the De Anima paraphrase, as in AP, tamām translates entelechia, not energeia (e.g. at De Anima paraphrase 215.12, translating directly De Anima 412b5). Still, the notions of perfection and actuality seem close enough in all of these texts to license the parallel drawn by Arnzen.
38. Arnzen, 118.
39. Arnzen, 119.
40. De Anima paraphrase 202, 212,306. For the doctrine that the soul is simple, see also 196. The paraphrase refers to the soul as substance also at 180, 214, 222, 314, and 320.
41. Al-Kindī, Discourse on the Soul 280.8, Brief Statement on the Soul 281.5-6.
42. Al-Kindī, Discourse on the Soul 280.8, Brief Statement on the Soul 281.5-6.
43. See Arnzen's notes, 364ff.
44. Amzen, 121-22.
45. See also Arnzen, 123 n. 59, which rejects a different argument by Zimmermann for the reliance of AP upon the De Anima paraphrase.
46. Since the parallels discussed above deal only with Th.A and not GS or DS, it remains unclear whether the author of the De Anima paraphrase read only Th.A or some more complete version of the Arabic Plotinus. (See, however, Arnzen 121, which argues that one parallel between the texts shows the author of the De Anima paraphrase using an earlier text of the Arabic Plotinus not split up into Th.A, GS and DS.) But given the overwhelming evidence that all parts of AP were written by a single author as one original text (see footnotes 4 and 8 above), it seems safe to assume that if Th.A was influenced by the De Anima paraphrase, then the same goes for y4P as a whole.
47. See Arnzen, 123.