2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Adaptation of Islamic Philosophy by Thomas Aquinas in "Summa contra Gentiles"
| Project/Area Number |
16520018
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Philosophy/Ethics
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
KAWAZOE Shinsuke Kyoto University, Graduate School of Letters, Professor, 文学研究科, 教授 (90177692)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
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| Keywords | Thomas Aquinas / Summa contra Gentiles / Islamic Philosophy / Averroes / Monopsychism / Scholasticism |
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| Research Abstract |
The main aim of this historical research was to explore the diverse influences of Islamic philosophy on Thomas Aquinas's Summa contra Gentiles. While it is widely known that european thinkers in 13th century have been under the deep infuluences of Islamic Aristotelianism, this research reconfirmed that Thomas Aquinas, one of the most creative and unique thinkers in the Middle Age, couldn't have attain to his original system of philosophy without reading the works of Avicenna and Averroes. Especially in the field of the philosophy of mind on which our research focused in the final year, Thomas is considering almost all topics while laying aside Averroes's Great Commentary on Aristotle's De anima. By the knowledge of the details we could contribute to the historical studies on the relation between Islamic philosophy and Western medieval philosophy.
Besides, by our research we could get some important insight to re-examine the concept of "mind" which we have accepted since the beginning of the Western Modern Philosophy. Thomas's claim that the cognition of human mind should be considered as a natural event in the world is profoundly different from the conception of mind by Modern philosophers as Descartes. Our research has shown that historical study was always indispensable for thinking philosophically. As a result of it, we are preparing the bilingual edition(Latin and Japanese) of the part on human nature in Summa contra Gentiles.
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