On his book Success and Suppression: Arabic Sciences and Philosophy in the Renaissance
Cover Interview of April 04, 2017
Lastly
The hostility of the humanist movement to
Arabic sciences was far from monolithic. There are many examples of humanist
scholars who contributed to the flourishing of Arabic sciences and philosophy
in the Renaissance. Moreover, humanists did not explicitly oppose Arabic
sciences because they were Oriental or because they originated from Islamic
culture. Rather, they opposed them partly for scientific reasons, partly as a
result of ideological beliefs in linguistic purism and in Greek superiority,
and partly because Arabic authors were an obstacle – an obstacle to the humanists’
project of renewing Europe through Greece and Rome.
The fact remains that Arabic traditions were
attacked for being Arabic, that is, they were attacked on the basis of a
cultural and linguistic labeling. Renaissance humanists are the inventors of
cultural clichés that persist even today – that Arabic science amounts to
plagiarism; that it is nothing more than Greek thought in Arabic garb; that Arabic
scholars were mere transmitters of science from antiquity to medieval Europe;
in other words, as Epicurus is said to have claimed, that “only the Greeks are
able to philosophize.” This is the sad inheritance of the humanist polemics
against Arabic science.
It is one of the tasks of historical research
to point out the historical falsity of clichés such as these, especially given
that they survive even today. Many medieval and many Renaissance scholars knew
better and were fully aware that Arabic scholars, too, are able to
philosophize.
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
Lastly
The hostility of the humanist movement to Arabic sciences was far from monolithic. There are many examples of humanist scholars who contributed to the flourishing of Arabic sciences and philosophy in the Renaissance. Moreover, humanists did not explicitly oppose Arabic sciences because they were Oriental or because they originated from Islamic culture. Rather, they opposed them partly for scientific reasons, partly as a result of ideological beliefs in linguistic purism and in Greek superiority, and partly because Arabic authors were an obstacle – an obstacle to the humanists’ project of renewing Europe through Greece and Rome.
The fact remains that Arabic traditions were attacked for being Arabic, that is, they were attacked on the basis of a cultural and linguistic labeling. Renaissance humanists are the inventors of cultural clichés that persist even today – that Arabic science amounts to plagiarism; that it is nothing more than Greek thought in Arabic garb; that Arabic scholars were mere transmitters of science from antiquity to medieval Europe; in other words, as Epicurus is said to have claimed, that “only the Greeks are able to philosophize.” This is the sad inheritance of the humanist polemics against Arabic science.
It is one of the tasks of historical research to point out the historical falsity of clichés such as these, especially given that they survive even today. Many medieval and many Renaissance scholars knew better and were fully aware that Arabic scholars, too, are able to philosophize.