Skip to content

Philosopher

Last reviewed:

Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

1126–1198 · Aristotelianism · Medieval

Ibn Rushd of Cordoba, known in Latin as Averroes, was a jurist, physician, and the most detailed medieval commentator on Aristotle. Born in 1126, died in 1198, he worked in al-Andalus and, for a time, in the Almohad court. The commentaries, short, middle, and long, became so important in Latin Europe that Aristotle was often read through him.

Read more

In the Islamic west his position was more contested, and he died out of favour. The Decisive Treatise argues that the law itself calls qualified people to demonstration, and that a sound proof and a sound reading of scripture cannot finally contradict. Where they seem to clash, interpretation has failed. He is not a modern secularist, and he is not a simple harmoniser who makes every difficulty vanish.

Truth is one, on his claim, and the work is to read both philosophy and the law at the right level. English readers usually meet a paraphrase of that claim rather than a shelf of short sentences. The commentaries are the other half of the life.

The harmony claim stays a paraphrase. Hourani's English supplies the opening argument of the Decisive Treatise and the three ways of assent. The commentaries are not epigrams, so this page does not invent a fifth motto.

Start here

The Decisive Treatise, in a translation that keeps the legal framing

It is short, and it shows why he thought philosophy belonged inside the law rather than beside it as a rival faith.

Quotations

“If the activity of philosophy is nothing more than study of existing beings and reflection on them as indications of the Artisan, and if the Law has recommended and urged reflection on beings, then what this name signifies is either obligatory or recommended by the Law.”

Ibn Rushd (Averroes) · Aristotelianism

knowledgemeaning
Paraphrase or translation
Meaning & application
“For the natures of men are on different levels with respect to [their paths to] assent…”

Ibn Rushd (Averroes) · Aristotelianism

knowledgesociety
Paraphrase or translation
Meaning & application

Key ideas

  • Truth does not oppose truth

    Demonstrative truth and scriptural truth cannot really contradict, so an apparent clash is a failure of interpretation.

  • Demonstration as duty

    For those able to follow a proof, the law summons them to philosophy rather than forbidding it.

  • Aristotle explained

    The commentaries try to recover Aristotle's arguments with a precision that shaped Latin scholasticism.

Major works

  • The Decisive Treatise (c. 1179)

    A legal and philosophical defence of demonstration for those fitted to it.

  • Commentaries on Aristotle (1160s–1190s)

    Short, middle, and long commentaries. Latin Europe's main route into Aristotle for a time.

  • Incoherence of the Incoherence (c. 1180)

    His reply to Ghazali's Incoherence of the Philosophers, point by point.

Influences

Influenced

Common misreadings

  • The harmony claim means philosophy always wins by being called the true reading.
  • He is only a bridge by which Europe received Aristotle, with no arguments of his own.

Famous lines Ibn Rushd (Averroes) never said

None of the lines this library files for Ibn Rushd (Averroes) is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

FAQ

What is the best book to start with?

The Decisive Treatise, in a translation that keeps the legal framing It is short, and it shows why he thought philosophy belonged inside the law rather than beside it as a rival faith.

What is the most famous quote?

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Ibn Rushd (Averroes) that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Truth does not oppose truth; rather, it agrees with it and bears witness to it.” (The Decisive Treatise (Faṣl al-Maqāl), Paraphrase or translation).

What is the most misquoted line?

None of the lines this library files for Ibn Rushd (Averroes) is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Truth does not oppose truth: Demonstrative truth and scriptural truth cannot really contradict, so an apparent clash is a failure of interpretation.