Philosophy of The Middle Ages

Arab and Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages

The unification of the recently fragmented Arab tribes under the national-religious banner during the era of the Prophet Muhammad (570—632) marked a new chapter in their history. By the early 7th century, united under the banner of Islam, the Arabs began significant conquests. In many regions, the language of the Quran, the Islamic religion, and the governance of the caliphate became international, comparable in significance to Latin in Western Europe. Through military campaigns, Arabs came into close spiritual contact with conquered peoples, including Christian culture and philosophy.

From the 8th century onwards, Greek science and philosophy became vital spiritual sources for Arabs, with Syrian Christians playing a significant role in this process by transmitting ideas of Neoplatonism and Neopythagoreanism. By the 9th century, a major Arab educational and scientific center emerged in Baghdad, where the famous "House of Wisdom" was founded. Here, Arabic translations of the works of renowned thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid, and Archimedes were actively produced. It was also in this era that Shahristani created a unique history of philosophy, titled "Religious Sects and Philosophical Schools," which outlined the ideas of the Milesian school, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle.

By the late 8th century, a distinctive movement within Islam known as Sufism emerged. Essentially a mystical direction within the Muslim religion, Sufism is reflected in the well-known formula "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His prophet." Sufis believed that human beings are inclined to perceive God only through the mystical yearning of the soul. This ascent occurred through ecstasy, a special spiritual state that cannot be conveyed by human language or renunciation of the world. An important element of Sufism is the idea of emanation, where the one God emanates into the natural world of things and objects, vividly reflected in the souls of believers.

The development of Arab philosophy received a significant boost from the work of Al-Farabi (circa 875—circa 950), who came from Farab (Turkmenistan). He posited that everything existing originates from God, defined as the "First Being," or "the Beginning, beyond which no beginning can exist; nothing before and nothing after." Nothing can unite with God.

Al-Farabi's central focus was the active intellect, regarded as the primary motivator of the soul. For him, the soul is entirely separate from the body. In the process of knowledge acquisition, the soul cannot act outside of sensations, representations, and perceptions. Thus, Al-Farabi considered reason to be a unique spiritual-cognitive ability capable of understanding higher spiritual forms emanating from God and devoid of any corporeality.

Regarding the significance of philosophy, Al-Farabi assigned it a dominant role in human cognition. Accordingly, the Arab thinker recognized philosophy and philosophical inquiry as the highest form of human intellectual activity, where logic and rational proof of truth play a primary role.

Recognizing happiness as the main goal of human life, Al-Farabi, in the spirit of ancient traditions, proclaimed that the path to it lies through knowledge and understanding, with will and freedom being the guarantees of this journey.

The philosophy of Al-Farabi greatly influenced the views of another great Eastern thinker, Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (circa 980—1037). Born in Afshan, near Bukhara, Avicenna received an excellent education, mastered the Quran, and studied the stylistics of the Arabic language. He was highly knowledgeable in medicine and was one of the most eminent doctors of his time ("Prince of Physicians"), with his reputation spreading throughout the Middle East. His fundamental work, the "Canon of Medicine," remained Europe's most popular medical guide for doctors and students until the 17th century.

Avicenna's philosophical views continued and deepened the traditions of Eastern Arab Aristotelianism. His metaphysical reflections focused on four kinds of existence. The first consists of purely spiritual entities, such as God. The second kind involves entities connected to matter, such as celestial spheres and the souls that move them. The third kind includes entities that may sometimes be material and sometimes immaterial (properties, necessities, possibilities, etc.). The fourth kind is material objects, or concepts related to matter that have a physical nature.

For Avicenna, the world's emergence is not a result of God's willful activity. He defined the main moment in this process as God's knowledge or rational-intellectual activity. Specifically, everything happened through emanation or the simple outflow of ideal forms from God's intellect, which then transformed into matter, thereby causing the emergence of individual things. This line of thought allows us to assert that, in Avicenna's view, God is not only the first cause of all existence but also its ultimate goal.

For the Arab thinker, the human soul is immortal. In his "Book of Salvation," Avicenna writes that the soul does not perish with the death of the body; it is indeed indestructible. As a physician, he asserted that the human body passively receives stimuli, whereas the intellect is always active and requires no external force. As the body ages, it weakens, while the intellect grows stronger, matures, and becomes more perfect. Thus, according to the philosopher, the intellect is a substance whose existence is independent of the body.

The pinnacle of Jewish philosophy during the Middle Ages is considered to be the work of the rabbi, physician, and philosopher Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) (1135—1204), the personal physician to the great Sultan Saladin.

Maimonides authored the authoritative work "Guide for the Perplexed." The "perplexed" are those who, despite having certain philosophical knowledge, cannot reconcile it with Jewish religious beliefs and ethical convictions. Therefore, for Maimonides, philosophy can be somewhat dangerous if misunderstood. Only after achieving moral perfection through adherence to the Laws of the Torah can a person be allowed to refine their intellect.

A staunch supporter of Aristotle, Maimonides' ethical teachings synthesize the biblical legacy with Aristotelian models. His messianism has a purely earthly origin, as he believes not in bodily resurrection but in the immortality attained through metaphysical knowledge. Maimonides views humans as political beings, fully following Aristotle in this regard. Thus, he translates all moral issues into a social sphere where morality not only derives its principles but also fully realizes its normative function, becoming a principle of practical behavior and a standard for moral relations between people.

In his "Guide for the Perplexed," Maimonides asserts that every prayer should be silent and every step in observing the Law should be directed toward the highest, which is Love. Love is the only force capable of bridging the chasm that separates man from God.

It is noteworthy that Jewish philosophical thought significantly influenced the development of scholasticism in Europe, serving as a bridge between Arabic-speaking scholars and Western European philosophers.