Methods in Medieval Latin and Arabic Philosophy (6th–13th cent.)

The topic of this volume consists in discussing the methods used in the different areas of philosophy during the Latin Middle Ages and in the Islamicate world. The different contributions treat the methods of logic, ethics, philosophical psychology, physics, the mathematical disciplines and metaphysics from the end of antiquity towards the thirteenth/fourteenth century. The articles explain the respective roles of logic and of experiments as well as those of mathematics as a model of a purely rational endeavor within the different fields of philosophical research. Thus, the collection gives an impression of how Latin and Arabic thinkers understood and developed the Aristotelian idea that the specific methods of one philosophical discipline cannot be applied in the same way to any other subject area. As a result, a variety of perspectives on what good philosophical practice can look like emerge from both cultural spheres. The volume contributes to comparative studies in the History of Philosophy as well as to actual discussions on philosophical methods.