(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)
by
Peter Adamson (LMU Munich)
on
The Five Eternals: the Shocking Cosmology of a 10th Century Muslim Platonist
Tuesday, 18 February, 2014, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412
ABSTRACT
Among early philosophers in the Islamic world, none is more notorious than Abu Bakr al-Razi (d.925). An expert doctor, he also put forward philosophical ideas that brought accusations of heresy. It's easy to see why: he supposedly denied the validity of prophecy and postulated four eternal principles other than God, namely soul, matter, time and place.
In this presentation I will introduce al-Razi's thought and focus on his innovative cosmology, showing how it draws on sources in Plato's "Timaeus".