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'Plato is my friend, but a greater friend is truth:' the discordant reception of an Aristotelian maxim in Arabic and Persian
Abstract
Aristotle’s selfconsciously daring maxim that the pursuit of truth take precedence over personal attachment to cherished convictions and revered teachers was transmitted to Islam in the author’s own discursive formulation (Nicomachean Ethics 1096a11-15), but perhaps with more resonance, also in late antique gnomic condensations. In whichever version it was passed on, its reception has, to this very day, been decidedly mixed, ranging from enthusiastic embrace to disdainful rejection. Abū Bakr al-Rāzī and Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (and in his wake Rashīd Riḍā) may be cited as representing opposite positions. Across the entire gamut, Aristotle’s maxim in Arabic certainly never achieved the concision of the Latin Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas, variously quoted in European letters. Expanding on Franz Rosenthal (The technique and approach of Muslim scholarship, 1947), the presentation envisaged for Montréal will examine various argumentative uses Aristotle’s appeal to value truth above all else has been put to by Arabic and Persian authors. The main focus will be on the import, or non-, of his postulate in pronouncedly authority-bound Islamicate socio-cultural contexts.
Discipline
Philosophy
Geographic Area
Islamic World
Sub Area
Islamic Thought