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W.L. Craig has argued that the universe has a beginning because (1) the infinitude of the past entails the existence of actual infinite multitudes of past intervals of time, and (2) the existence of actual infinite multitudes is impossible. Puryear has rejected (1) and argued that what the infinitude of the past entails is only the existence of an actual infinite magnitude of past time. But this does not preclude the infinitude of the past, Puryear claims, because there can be no justification for the claim that actual infinite magnitudes are impossible. I argue, against Puryear, that there can be such a justification. I claim, nevertheless, that, for reasons entirely different from Puryear's, the finitude of the past cannot be established based either on the impossibility of actual infinite multitudes or on the impossibility of actual infinite magnitudes. My arguments in this paper draw on insights from al-Kindī and Avicenna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to show how the ninth-century astrologer, Abū Maʿshar Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Balkhī, accounted for generation, corruption and change in the sublunary world. He sides with the philosophers against the astrologers and takes as his principal source the Peripatetic tradition. He shows that it is the movements of the heavenly bodies, rather than their elemental qualities, that are responsible for all elemental changes, and that these changes 'result from,' or follow naturally from, those movements rather than are caused by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, I assume that the notion of "truth" in philosophy would not have been clarified and tackled properly, if philosophers did not take into account earlier Arabic Medieval research contributions and build upon previous research findings. In the first place, I embark on the scrutiny of the rich aspect (or nature) of the Arabic Lexicon in terms of the "truth" meaning. In the second place, I take on the assumption that Arabic linguistic traditions imply different kinds of truths, depending on various spheres of human thoughts and actions based on the logical approach to "truth" (from Al-Kindi up to Averroes via Al-Farabi and Avicenna) and the term "al-haqiqha" as transliterated from Arabic, remain central. In conclusion, I take on an approach to "truth" that gives worth to logical perspectives at the very heart of Medieval Arab traditions in the light of what I would label as the "Omni-cultural Universality of Logic and Science". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues that the first two titles listed in the bibliography of Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb b. Isḥāq al-Kindī (d. ca. 259/873) presented in the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadīm (d. 380/990) – his well-known work al-Falsafa al-ūlā (First Philosophy), on metaphysics, and a lost work entitled al-Falsafa al-dākhila (Internal Philosophy) – form an intentional pair. Together, they presented an epitome of Aristotle's collective works on philosophy, including an outline of metaphysics in al-Falsafa al-ūlā and a discussion of detailed questions of logic, physics, psychology, and metaphysics in al-Falsafa al-dākhila. Drawing primarily on al-Kindī's work On the Quantity of Aristotle's Books , the study suggests several emendations to the full title of al-Falsafa al-dākhila as recorded in the Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadīm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article reports the discovery of a previously unknown ninth-century Arabic paraphrase of Dionysius the Areopagite and demonstrates that this paraphrase was accessible to al-Ġazālī (and, probably, to other authors, notably the Brethren of Purity). It also proves that this paraphrase was produced by the same translator as the Doxography of Pseudo-Ammonius. The doctrinal content of the Arabic Dionysian paraphrase is then analyzed in relation to Arabic Neoplatonic texts as well as al-Ġazālī's writings. The influence of Gregory of Nyssa and John of Damascus on some Arabic philosophical texts (notably al-Kindī's Book of Definitions) is also considered. The origin of "Interpositional Neoplatonism" (i.e., the kind of Neoplatonism that interposes an intermediate hypostasis between the First Principle and the Intellect) is examined. The Appendix discusses the relationship between the Doxography of Pseudo-Ammonius and Hippolytus of Rome's Refutatio omnium haeresium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the second part of an investigation into the controversy between the Arab-Muslim philosopher Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb b. Isḥāq al-Kindī (died after 256/870, ca. 873) and the Christian-Jacobite logician and theologian Yaḥyā b. 'Adĩ (d. 363/974). It argues that we can draw a line from Basil of Caesarea's and Gregory of Nyssa's refutation of Eunomius of Cyzicus to Yaḥyā b. 'Adī's refutation of al-Kindĩ. According to Gregory's and Ibn 'Adī's reasoning Eunomius' and al-Kindī's refutation of the consubstantiality of God-Father and God-Son is grounded in a series of misunderstandings starting from the fundamental error of a false interpretation of the relationship between substance and hypostases. The term 'hypostases' in Gregory's and Ibn 'Adī's interpretation does not indicate 'individual substances' but rather different subsistences of a nature or essence realised by the properties peculiar to that nature. The nature in turn is knowable by its intelligible properties, and the fact of the subsistence of properties is signified by an appellation or by the predication of a circumscription (...) or characterisation and attribute (ṣifa) respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study traces the early developments of the concept of experiment with a view of extending the subject in both content and approach. It extends the content of the subject slightly backward, prior to the methodological breakthroughs of the Optics of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen or Alhacen, d. ca. 1040), which are credited as a "significant landmark in the history of experimental science." And it extends the approach to the subject slightly forward, from the premise that early science was "largely carried out in books," to a close examination of the books through which the footprints of 'experiment' may be traced. The point of departure is the Optics of Ahmad ibn 'Ī;sā, a revealing text for the early developments of concepts such as 'demonstration' and 'experiment', and one through which some modern discussions are examined and extended with reference to this and other historical sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]