Philosopher
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi
1162–1231
Also known as ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, al-Baghdadi
Philosopher and physician who, after years as a follower of Avicenna, called for a return to Aristotle and to the earlier Arabic Aristotelians, and attacked false physicians, philosophers and alchemy.
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi was born in Baghdad in 1162 into a family with close ties to its leading college, and was well schooled in the Islamic sciences before turning to natural science, medicine, philosophy and, critically, alchemy. For more than forty years he travelled through Iraq, Syria and Egypt in search of a good teacher, meeting Saladin and, in Cairo, Maimonides.
Cairo was where he finally found Aristotle and his ancient commentators, and al-Farabi, and where he gave up the Avicennan philosophy he had once thought the only one possible. He was a sharp critic and an independent thinker who wrote prolifically on philosophy and medicine. He died in Baghdad in 1231.
Key ideas
- Back to the Ancients
- Philosophy had declined, Abd al-Latif argued, because the works of the Ancients were neglected, their pages reused by bookbinders and pharmacists as wrapping. His remedy was to go back to Aristotle for philosophy and, by way of Galen, to Hippocrates for medicine.
- Against Avicenna
- Avicenna gave philosophy new energy, but his system was incomplete: he neglected practical philosophy, the subject of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics, and ignored Aristotle’s rule that inquiry should start from what is better known to us.
- Alchemy is a fraud
- Alchemy, then fashionable, has no place among the sciences. Its claim to turn base metals into gold is a fraud, which must be kept apart from genuine knowledge such as mathematics, mineralogy, zoology and botany; the Ancients never wrote about it.
- Tradition
- Arabic and Islamic
- Region
- Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Aleppo
- Period
- Later Islamic
Influences
Influenced by
- Aristotle384–322 BCE
- al-Kindic. 800 – c. 870 CE
- al-Farabic. 870 – c. 950 CE
- Avicennac. 970 – 1037 CEcriticised
- Fakhr al-Din al-Razi1149–1210criticised
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi1162–1231
Influenced by
- Aristotle384–322 BCE
- al-Kindic. 800 – c. 870 CE
- al-Farabic. 870 – c. 950 CE
- Avicennac. 970 – 1037 CEcriticised
- Fakhr al-Din al-Razi1149–1210criticised
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi1162–1231
Where these links come from
- Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi drew on Aristotle. Source: Cecilia Martini Bonadeo, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi drew on al-Kindi. Source: Cecilia Martini Bonadeo, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi drew on al-Farabi. Source: Cecilia Martini Bonadeo, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi drew on and argued against Avicenna. Source: Cecilia Martini Bonadeo, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi argued against Fakhr al-Din al-Razi. Source: Cecilia Martini Bonadeo, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Book of the Two Pieces of Advice
Sources
- Cecilia Martini Bonadeo, ʿAbd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy