The Introduction of Arabic Philosophy into Europe

Abstract

During the first three decades of this century, a lively debate emerged in western academic circles regarding the extent of the Arab-Islamic influence on western civilization. Certain scholars rejected the idea that the West had been influenced in any significant manner by the classical Arab-Islamic civilization (ninth to twelfth centuries CE). Barnes, in The Intellectual History of Mankind, argues that there is nothing in Islamic teachings or history that encouraged the pursuit of learning and scholarship. Thus, he claimed, one cannot speak of any "Islamic contribution" to western civilization. Sevier, in his The Psychology of the Mussa/man, goes further and argues that one cannot even speak of an "Arab" civilization, because all of the knowledge and scholarship produced in the classical age of Islam were due to Syrian, Jewish, Hindu, and Persian efforts. It naturally follows that all talk of any Arab influence on the West is superfluous. Other scholars presented counterarguments and took the position that the Arab-Islamic influence on western civilization was very significant. Briffault, in The Making of Humanity, credits classical Islamic scholarship with producing the intellectual concepts and methods that were the indispensable preludes to the European renaissance. Sarton, in his Introduction to the History of Science, argues that the impact of Hindu and Chinese cultures on the West can be totally disregarded without seriously impairing one's ability to understand the postmedieval progress of the West. But if the Arab-Islamic impact were to be discounted, then the story of this progress would become confused and unintelligible ...