Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This dissertation analyses basic Aristotelian notions in two quite different contexts: in the modern Western philosophy of Martin Heidegger and in the mystical thought of perhaps the greatest Islamic medieval mystic Ibn al- Arabí (1165 1240CE). These two widely separated receptions of Aristotelian philosophy are intended to emphasize the main approach of the dissertation as phenomenological studies in the philosophy of religion. Phenomenology stands here for the perennial nature of genuine philosophical questioning: the demand of Zur Sachen Selbst is equally pertinent in the framework Aristotelian, Ibn al- Arabian and Heideggerian frames of reference. Thus the work is divided into three main sections: the first part tends to give an overall picture of Aristotelian thinking in its own context through the analysis of two modern scholars on Aristotle. These two are Monte Johnson (2005) on Aristotelian teleology and Heinz Happ (1971) on the Aristotelian concept of matter, hylê. These two studies serve as the general foundation of Aristotelian thinking to provide background for the later interpretations in the medieval Islamic and modern European frames of reference. The second part takes a closer look at the project of the young Heidegger on Aristotelian philosophy before the publication of his major work, Being and Time in 1927. Although his primary motive was to attack the Aristotelian scholastic tradition, these early years of thorough Aristotelian investigations brought him to a Radicalizing of Ancient Ontology, meaning a new and relevant entry into Aristotelian philosophy without the heavy baggage of Christian scholastic tradition. This study aims to show that if Aristotle is understood in a genuine philosophical sense and not through the western metaphysical or onto-theological tradition, his basic ideas are highly applicable to both genuine mystical ideas and provide an opportunity for a new and fresh entry into philosophical questions as such. The third and largest part of this work deals with the Aristotelian legacy in the Islamic world. Here we see how the earliest and decisive channel of influences came through the Aristotelian and the earlier Greek peri physeôs tradition through the early translation of On Generation and Corruption, On the Heavens, and the Meteorology of Aristotle. Here I want to show the direct influence of Aristotelian physics in the cosmological teachings of Ibn al- Arabí and the Islamic tradition on the whole. The study ends in a meeting between philosophy and mysticism to show the similarities and differences of these two basic human approaches on ultimate human ends. Key-concepts: hylê/hayûlâ matter; dúnamis/quwwa, force, possibility; energeia/bi l-fa el, actuality; tò tí ên eînai, quod quid erat esse, the what it was to be, entelekheia, having-come-to-the-end, al-nashâ al-insânîya, the human level, Dasein, being-there; stoikheia, al-ustuqussât, the elements.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Mikko Telaranta
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1010547808