Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect

"This is one of the most impressive scholarly books that I have seen in a long time. It is informed, erudite, well-researched, and well-structured."--Arthur Hyman, Yeshiva University "Davidson's book is an absolutely indispensable and unique tool for all scholars of medieval angelologies and theories of intellect--both Eastern and Western--who are unable to read the Arabic sources in the original. The feature which makes this work stand out favorably among other similar studies is that the amount of detail and precision of descriptions almost makes it into an anthology of original texts."--Ruminatio "This book is a masterful exposition of medieval writings on the "most intensely studied sentences in the history of philosophy,"(p.3), those concerning the intellect which Aristotle wrote Book Three of De anima, chapters 4 and 5....Davidson has impressive linguistic and analytical skills, enabling him to interpret difficult texts with seeming ease and confidence."--International Studies in Philosophy "Davidson organizes his book in an extemely lucid, even schematic, way.... a wonderfully lucid quide to the Aristotelian tradition on intellect in the Middle Ages."--The Jewish Quarterly Review "Nothing of comparable breadth or depth and quality of analysis and argument exists on this topic today....Davidson's excellent contribution to the study of the understanding of intellect in the Middle Ages belongs not only in every research library but also in the personal libraries of all serious students of Medieval philosophical and religious thought."--Journal of Neoplatonic Studies "The literary and philosophic topics addressed in this monograph are perhaps the most difficult to decipher in the history of Western thought. Thanks to Davidson's embattled "history of philosophic ideas" and his uncanny knack for sorting out textual and conceptual confusions, the original meaning and subsequent interpretations of Aristotelian cosmology and intellect are no longer so hazy and intimidatingly enigmatic."-- The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies "This is one of the most impressive scholarly books that I have seen in a long time. It is informed, erudite, well-researched, and well-structured."--Arthur Hyman, Yeshiva University "Davidson's book is an absolutely indispensable and unique tool for all scholars of medieval angelologies and theories of intellect--both Eastern and Western--who are unable to read the Arabic sources in the original. The feature which makes this work stand out favorably among other similar studies is that the amount of detail and precision of descriptions almost makes it into an anthology of original texts."--Ruminatio "This book is a masterful exposition of medieval writings on the "most intensely studied sentences in the history of philosophy,"(p.3), those concerning the intellect which Aristotle wrote Book Three of De anima, chapters 4 and 5....Davidson has impressive linguistic and analytical skills, enabling him to interpret difficult texts with seeming ease and confidence."--International Studies in Philosophy "Davidson organizes his book in an extemely lucid, even schematic, way.... a wonderfully lucid quide to the Aristotelian tradition on intellect in the Middle Ages."--The Jewish Quarterly Review "Nothing of comparable breadth or depth and quality of analysis and argument exists on this topic today....Davidson's excellent contribution to the study of the understanding of intellect in the Middle Ages belongs not only in every research library but also in the personal libraries of all serious students of Medieval philosophical and religious thought."--Journal of Neoplatonic Studies "...[an] excellent account of a nest of some of the most vexing problems in ancient and medieval philosophy....The fine quality and broad scope of this well-written and convincingly argued tome make it a work that richly repays careful study by anyone with an interest in Aristotelian theories of the intellect or their role in the formation of psychological, metaphysical and religious philosophy in the Middle Ages. No comparable account of equal caliber and scholarly value on the topic exists today....an exemplary piece of scholarship and a most welcome contribution to the study of medieval philosophy."--The Philosophical Review "The literary and philosophic topics addressed in this monograph are perhaps the most difficult to decipher in the history of Western thought. Thanks to Davidson's embattled "history of philosophic ideas" and his uncanny knack for sorting out textual and conceptual confusions, the original meaning and subsequent interpretations of Aristotelian cosmology and intellect are no longer so hazy and intimidatingly enigmatic."-- The Journal of the Association for Jewish Studies