Studies on Plotinus and al-Kindi

This book collects 15 papers on the greatest philosopher of late antiquity and founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (d.270), and the founding figure of philosophy in the Islamic world: al-Kind (d. ca. 873). A number of the contributions focus on the text that joins the two: the so-called Theology of Aristotle, in fact an Arabic version of Plotinus Enneads produced in al- Kinds translation circle. Across several papers, Adamson argues that this translation is best understood as a reinterpretation of Plotinus designed to appeal to contemporary readers in the culture of the Abbsid era. Two contributions also analyze the notes on the Theology written by the great Avicenna. Other papers look at aspects of al-Kinds own thought, exploring his ideas concerning metaphysics, free will astrology, and optics. The traditions of Plotinus and al-Kind are also treated, with papers on Plotinus student Porphyry and his Arabic reception, and on followers of al-Kind. Adamson argues that we can identify what he calls a 'Kindian tradition' in the 9th-10th centuries. He discusses the philosophical presuppositions of this movement, and the use of al-Kinds ideas made by one particular representative of the Kindian tradition, the Persian thinker Miskawayh.