Nader El-Bizri

A PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ALHAZEN'S OPTICS

Although numerous studies have been conducted on the Optics ( Kitāb al-Manāzir ) of Alhazen (al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, d. 1040 C.E.), and on its reception, assimilation and maturation within the course of development of the perspectivae traditions in the history of science and art, ambiguities do hitherto still surround the epistemological and ontological entailments of his theory of visual perception. In addressing this question, our inquiry herein is principally philosophical in scope and our textual reading combines exegesis with hermeneutics. While we observe the delicate procedures of historiography and philology, we do not unguardedly assume that they are exhaustive of all rigorous methods of thoughtful investigation. Moreover, in heeding the internal coherence of Alhazens text, we do not simply lock his views within reductive contextual chronologies, or readily confine them to epochal matters of textual transmission. Our endeavour is therefore not exclusively set in view of serving the purposes of archival documentation, even if we preserve a thorough and sound sense of historicity. We ultimately recognize the philosophical pertinence of numerous subtle leitmotifs within Alhazens thinking that speak to us in an effective timely manner, which is significantly relevant in its attuned bearings to the thrust of phenomenological theories of perception.

THE LABYRINTH OF PHILOSOPHY IN ISLAM

This paper focuses on the methodological issues related to the obstacles and potential horizons of approaching the philosophical traditions in Islam from the standpoint of comparative studies in philosophy, while also presenting selected casestudies that may potentially illustrate some of the possibilities of renewing the impetus of a philosophical thought that is inspired by Islamic intellectual history. This line of inquiry is divided into two parts: the first deals with questions of methodology, and the second focuses on ontology and phenomenology of perception, by way of offering pathways in investigating the history of philosophical and scientific ideas in Islam from the viewpoint of contemporary debates in philosophy. A special emphasis will be placed on: (a) interpreting the ontology of the eleventh century metaphysician Ibn Sīnā (known in Latin as: Avicenna; d. 1037 CE) in terms of rethinking Heidegger’s critique of the history of metaphysics, and (b) analyzing the philosophical implications of the theory of vision of the eleventh century polymath Ibn al-Haytham (known in Latin as Alhazen; d. ca. 1041 CE) in terms of reflecting on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception.

Avicenna’s de Anima: Between Aristotle and Husserl

The De Anima treatise (Kitāb al-nafs) of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, 980–1037) has important implications for the disputes over the interpretation of Aristotle’s compelling work Πєρi \(\psi \upsilon \chi \hat \eta \varsigma \) (peri psuchēs, De Anima). It also has significant implications regarding the course of development of Modern European philosophy and the unfolding of contemporary debates of the philosophy of mind and phenomenology.

Seeing Reality in Perspective: The “Art of Optics” and the “Science of Painting”

This chapter examines the adaptive assimilation and innovative conceptual prolongations with practical applications of the classical Greek–Arabic science of optics in Renaissance perspectival pictorial arts , as mediated by European mediaeval optical theories and experimentations. This line of inquiry gives a historical account of the epistemic bearings of the connections and distinctions between the exact sciences and the visual arts, with an emphasis on the role of classical optics in the art of painting , and the function of pictorial art in pre-modern natural sciences. A special focus will be set on examining the optical and geometrical legacy of the eleventh century Arab polymath, al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (known in Latinate renditions of his name as “Alhazen ” or “Alhacen”; d. after 1041 CE). This investigation considers the fundamental elements of his theories of vision, light , and space in the context of his studies in optics and geometry , while taking into account his use of experimentation and controlled testing as a method of demonstration and proof. This course of analysis will be furthermore linked to the adaptation of Ibn al-Haytham’s research within the thirteenth century Franciscan optical workshops, while scrutinizing the impress that his transmitted texts had on Renaissance perspectival representation of spatial depth and its entailed organization of architectural locales and spaces.

Being and Necessity: A Phenomenological Investigation of Avicenna's Metaphysics and Cosmology

The distinction between essence and existence, which was systematized by Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980-1037 CE), had a major impact on the maturation of metaphysics in the history of ideas in the Islamic world. Moreover, it inspired Thomism and Scotism, as well as tacitly culminating in the unfolding of modern philosophy in Hegel’s Die Wissenschaft der Logik. This intellectual event, which rested on Avicenna’s elucidation of the question of being in terms of the modalities of necessity, contingency, and impossibility, resulted in the unfurling of a systematic ontology that departed from the confines of Aristotle’s metaphysics and led moreover to the emergence of a novel cosmology that reconciled a metaphysics of necessity with a theology of contingency. Although numerous studies have been conducted on Avicenna’s metaphysics and cosmology in general, and on his modal explication of the question of being in particular, rigorous phenomenological investigations of the consequences of his ontology have hitherto been rarely performed. Despite my previous attempts to interpret Avicenna’s corpus based on Heidegger’s critique of the history of metaphysics, the phenomenological bearings of his elucidation of the question of being remained unclear. This state of affairs necessitated a re-elaboration of my terms of reference in approaching Avicenna’s ontology from a Heideggerian perspective, and ultimately called for assessing the measure by which a phenomenological reading of the history of philosophy can be embarked on without running the methodological risks that get occasionally entangled with a sense of anachronism. Consequently, and by way of exploring modes according to which such a hermeneutic effort may unfold, this inquiry re-investigates the potential phenomenological impetus that Avicenna may continue to bestow. I will re-examine Avicenna’s conception of wajib al-wujud bi-dhatihi (The Necessary Existent due to Itself, or Necessary Being), which points to significant phenomenological leitmotifs, while maintaining a textual precision in my reading. However, this effort will not be encumbered by the historiographical or philological concerns that exactingly dominate the research of mediaevalists or scholars of Islamic studies. This interpretation is rather a 1

Grosseteste’s Meteorological Optics: Explications of the Phenomenon of the Rainbow After Ibn al-Haytham

This chapter examines the meteorological optics of Robert Grosseteste (c. 1170–1253 ce) by way of critically analysing his explication of the phenomenon of the rainbow in the context of his reflections on the nature of light, the generation of colour, and the underpinning of his thought in onto-theological terms. This study aims at placing the meteorological optical oeuvre of Grosseteste in mediaeval European science against the background of the Greco-Arabic science of optics. This course of inquiry situates Grosseteste’s meteorology and his explication of the phenomenon of the rainbow in a comparative context that is set in-between the pioneering experimental research in optics of the Arab polymath Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen; eleventh century ce), as it was established in the Kitāb al-manāẓir (Book of Optics; De aspectibus; Perspectiva), and the refined reforming of the latter’s thesis on the rainbow through the Tanqīḥ al-manāẓir (Revision of The Optics) by the Persian optician Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī (thirteenth century ce).

Phenomenological Dialectics on Reason and Spirit: Rational Discourses and Spiritual Inspirations

Philosophical interrogations around the notions of “reason” and “spirit” are essentially self-reflective, in the sense that they presuppose the matter to be thought to be itself posited as a ground that founds the unfurling of such impetus in thinking. This self-reflexivity lets itself also appear in this transition as being seemingly groundless in its self-grounding (as Abgrund). This reflective state of affairs becomes significantly complicated in the context of a dialogue between “phenomenology” and “philosophical thinking in Islam”; especially when such endeavor is undertaken in the context of a colloquium held as part of the American Philosophical Association meeting (keeping in mind the manner by virtue of which mainstream academic/professional “philosophical analyses” assess investigations of “spirituality”).