Abdal Hakim Murad - The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology

Islamic philosophy (falsafa) 61
the idea of validity
The formative period was distinguished by the role played by Abu
Yusuf ibn Ish _
aq al-Kindı (d.c. 866), sometimes referred to as the ‘‘philosopher
of the Arabs’’, whose works introduced the idea of the validity of
philosophical investigation per se, independently of formal kalam
affiliation. This notion of the validity of philosophy as an independent
discipline has been fundamental to its development in Islamic history.
Of lasting significance to the position of philosophy is Kindı’s
principal view, which upholds the validity of revealed truth and at the
same time holds that the demonstrative method, known by the term
burhan (Arabic for Posterior Analytics, the title of Aristotle’s most
important book on logical method), is equally capable of recovering the
highest form of knowledge. Kindı did not, however, attempt a systematic
‘‘harmonisation’’ of revealed truth with philosophy (one of Islamic
philosophy’s primary goals, also known as the ‘‘rational proof of
prophecy’’). His main contribution was to identify Greek texts and refine
their Arabic translations (some of which he had commissioned). These
texts include extensive paraphrases of pre-Socratic authors, Plato’s
Laws, Timæus and Republic, plus paraphrases of the Phaedo and other
Platonic texts; almost the entire Aristotelian corpus minus the Politics;
and selected Neoplatonic texts, some incorrectly identified (e.g., parts of
Plotinus’ Enneads IV–VI, thought to be ‘‘Aristotle’s Theology’’); as well
as works by Porphyry, notably the Isagōgē, and by Proclus, together with
many other texts and fragments of the Greek philosophical heritage,
including some elements of Stoic logic and physics associated with the
late antique schools of Alexandria and Athens. In addition, Aristotelian
commentaries, including those of Alexander of Aphrodisias along with
their Neoplatonist interpretations, were identified and translated. 10
The basic character of this period’s philosophical method is shown
in Kindı’s own syncretic approach to the presentation and discussion of
philosophical problems. The first attempt to construct a metaphysical
system is seen in Kindı’s best-known text, On First Philosophy, in
which he defines a framework based on Neoplatonist theories of
emanation and the concept of the One, plus the basic Aristotelian
principles of being and modality as well as the metaphysics of causality
and of intellectual knowledge. The latter are given an Arabic version
that partially incorporates the Aristotelian and Platonic theories of the
soul and the Platonic dialectical method. Kindı argued for creation
ex nihilo, based on the Platonic emanation of intellect, soul and matter
from the One, but not as any natural causation in which the First Being
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