the other when he is combating Plato. This makes him ideal material for the commentator.
Avicenna invented a formula, which was repeated by Averroes and Albertus Magnus: "Thought
brings about the generality in forms." From this it might be supposed that he did not believe in
universals apart from thought. This, however, would be an unduly simple view. Genera--that is,
universals--are, he says, at once before things, in things, and after things. He explains this as
follows. They are before things in God's understanding. (God decides, for instance, to create
cats. This requires that He should have the idea "cat," which is thus, in this respect, anterior to
particular cats.) Genera are in things in natural objects. (When cats have been created, felinity is
in each of them.) Genera are after things in our thought. (When we have seen many cats, we
notice their likeness to each other, and arrive at the general idea "cat.") This view is obviously
intended to reconcile different theories.
Averroes (Ibn Rushd) ( 1126-1198) lived at the opposite end of the Muslim world from
Avicenna. He was born at Cordova, where his father and grandfather had been cadis; he himself
was a cadi, first in Seville, then in Cordova. He studied, first, theology and jurisprudence, then
medicine, mathematics, and philosophy. He was recommended to the "Caliph" Abu Yaqub
Yusuf as a man capable of making an analysis of the works of Aristotle. (It seems, however,
that he did not know Greek.) This ruler took him into favour; in 1184 he made him his
physician, but unfortunately the patient died two years later. His successor, Yaqub Al-Mansur,
for eleven years continued his father's patronage; then, alarmed by the opposition of the
orthodox to the philosopher, he deprived him of his position, and exiled him, first to a small
place near Cordova, and then to Morocco. He was accused of cultivating the philosophy of the
ancients at the expense of the true faith. Al-Mansur published an edict to the effect that God had
decreed hell-fire for those who thought that truth could be found by the unaided reason. All the
books that could be found on logic and metaphysics were given to the flames. *
Shortly after this time the Moorish territory in Spain was greatly diminished by Christian
conquests. Muslim philosophy in Spain ended
* It is said that Averroes was taken back into favour shortly before his death.