The conference on thoughts of the masters of philosophy Avicenna and Averroes was held on Thursday at the Complutense University of Madrid.
A
group of Iranian and Spanish scholars and university students attended the
conference at which Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Ahmadi from Tehran’s University of
Tarbiat-e Modarres made the opening speech.
Hoj.
Ahmadi discussed the issue of wisdom, its limits and its powers according to
the views of Avicenna and Averroes.
He
explained that in Avicenna’s opinion, wisdom understands the issues related to
the materialistic world, but considering those issues beyond the world, it is
not able to understand.
“Although Averroes is a follower of Avicenna, he disagrees with
Avicenna in different issues and in the meaning of wisdom, Hoj. Ahmadi
remarked, and later compared the viewpoints of both philosophers and talked
about their ideas.
Iran’s
cultural attaché in Spain Ahmad Khezri also delivered a speech on the topic
“Avicenna, a physician or a philosopher” and continued, “Despite the
vicissitudes of a life full of hardship, Avicenna was one of the most prolific
authors in Iran’s history of science.”
“People of Iran and the Orient believe that Avicenna was more of
a philosopher, while the Western people regard him primarily as a physician,”
Khezri stated.
“The
philosophical system of Avicenna has left an enduring influence on the
philosophical thoughts in the world of Islam, and although he was inspired by
Aristotle, he did not imitate him slavishly and had his own innovations,” he
discussed.
“The
West made use of the scientific heritage and innovations of Avicenna more and
that is why he is introduced more frequently as a physician rather than as a
philosopher,” he pinpointed.
Afterwards,
other participating scholars gave their lectures including professor of
philosophy Rafael Ramon Guerrero who presented his article on “Love in the Idea
of Avicenna”, and Saeid Hushangi who discussed “Unknown Character of Averroes.”
The
conference ended with Iranian traditional music performed by the “Tarz” band.
Abu
Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina, known as Abu Ali Sina and commonly known
in English by his Latinized name Avicenna was born in c. 980 near Bukhara,
contemporary Uzbekistan, and died 1037 in Hamedan, Iran.
He
was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his
time. He was also an astronomer,
chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet,
psychologist, scientist, soldier, statesman, and teacher.
Abu
l-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd better known simply as Ibn Rushd and in
European literature as Averroes (1126
–1198), was an Andalusian polymath: a master of early Islamic philosophy,
Islamic theology, and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, Arabic music theory,
and the sciences of medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics and physics.
He
was born in Cordoba, in modern day Spain, and died in Marrakech, in modern day
Morocco.
Source:
MEHR News Agency