Averroes (Ibn Rushd)
Who was he?
* Born in 1126 in Cordoba, Spain as ABU AL-WALID MUHAMMAD IBN AHMAD IBN MUHAMMAD IBN RUSHD. Islamic * Father and grandfather were both judges in Cordoba, Averroes would fill the same position his grandfather held * Become a religious judge of Seville in 1169, a chief judge of Cordoba in 1172, and in 1182 he became the royal physician for Abu Ya'qub in Marrakesh, Morocco * Lived a quiet life, dedicating most of his time to studying law, medicine, and philosophy * Believed to have been influenced and tutored by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace). * Studied Greek philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, and mostly Aristotle; writing many commentaries on Aristotle's' works. * Counter argued the ideas and writings of Al-Ghazali and his philosophy * Was exiled from Morocco in 1195 to Lucena because of the the Caliph Al-Mansour's scholars, believing his philosophy posed a threat (also destroyed many of his works). * Two years later the ban was lited, however Averroes died shortly after, in 1198
Major Works
Commentaries: Own Works:
~ Plato's Republic ~ Decisive Treatise
~ Alexander's De Intellectu ~ Kitab al-Jawami fil Falsafa
~ Nicolaus of Damascus' Metaphysics (The Compendium of Philosophy)
~ Porphyry's Isagoge ~ Incoherence of Incoherence (Az Ghazali response)
~ Most of Aristotle's works ~ Faith & Reason
*Wrote many commentaries and books on science, astronomy, law, and medicine.
(Believed to have written over 200,000 pages of commentaries and summaries)

Ideas
"Every prophet is a philosopher, but not every philosopher is a prophet." *Averroes believed truth came from following religious laws, and biding to those laws. He also thought the practice of religion and philosophy intertwined with each other (double truth theory). Averroes believed religion and philosophy both led to the revealing of truth in one's life. He related Aristotelian ideas to his Muslim religion, stating that knowledge is a knowledge of being on numerous levels. As for creation, God creates everything with its own individual purpose, leading to the fact that God's intelligence is different from human intelligence.

Sources

Hillier, H Chad. "Ibn Rushd (Averroes) [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.P., 14 Jen. 2005. Web. 5 Jan. 2010. http://www.iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/#H1

Rosenthal, E.I.J. "Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Web. 1995. http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ir/art/ir-eb.htm

http://kirjasto.sci.fi/averro.htm