The Arabic Influence on English
The Crusades, which spanned several centuries from the late 11th to the late 13th century, were indeed a pivotal moment in history where European Christians embarked on military campaigns to recapture Jerusalem and other holy sites in the Levant from Muslim control. This clash of cultures and civilizations had significant linguistic and cultural repercussions,…
Alexandrian interpretation of the Aristotelian psychology has soul
Complementary to this was the psychological teaching represented by the Aristotelian commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias who taught at Athens, A.D. 198-211. His extant works include commentaries[Pg 15] on the first book of the Analytica Priora, on the Topica, Meteorology, de sensu, the first five books of the Metaphysics and an abridgment of the other books of the Metaphysics, as well as treatises on the soul, etc. Over and over again his treatise on the soul and his commentaries are translated into Arabic, paraphrased, and made the subject of further commentaries, until it seems that his psychology is the very nucleus of all Arabic philosophy, and it is this which forms the main point of the Arabic influence on Latin scholasticism. It becomes indeed absolutely essential that we understand the Alexandrian interpretation of the Aristotelian psychology if we are to follow the oriental development of Greek science. [15]
The first point is to understand what is to be implied in the term “soul.” Plato was really a dualist in that he regards the soul as a separate entity which animates the body and compares it to a rider directing and controlling the horse he rides. But Aristotle makes a more careful analysis of psychological phenomena. In the treatise de anima he says “there is no need to enquire whether soul and body are one, any more than whether the wax and the imprint are one; or, in general, whether the matter of a thing is the same with that of which it is the matter.” (Aristot: de anima. II. i. 412. b. 6.) Aristotle defines the soul as “the first actuality of a natural body having in it the capacity of life” (id. 412. b. 5), in which “first” denotes that the soul is the primary form by which the substance of the body is[Pg 16] actualized, and “actuality” refers to the actualizing principle by which form is given to the body which otherwise would be only a collection of separate parts each having its own form but the aggregate being without corporate unity until the soul gives it form; in this sense the soul is the realization of the body (cf. Aristot: Metaph. iii. 1043. a. 35).
Source: Arabic Thought and Its Place in History by De Lacy O'Leary
Track of the day. Is D'eon the antiwar poet of our era? This is a club banger about drones. D'eon's instrumental (synth-umental) stylings are Arabic-inspired (-appropriating?) in that au courant way, à la Busta Rhymes (Arab Money) and M.I.A. (Bad Girls). Apparently he studied Arabic, Iranian, and Turkish music. The topic of this song is more singular—When it's done there is no blood on your hand/Kill a man far away in Pakistan goes one chorus. D'eon is one funky, down-and-dirty artist in the long history of American protest music.
