Philosophical theories of mixture from Greek to Syriac and Arabic

2016 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H07100
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan University
• Principal Investigator: グロワザール ジョスラン 首都大学東京, 人文科学研究科, 准教授 (30781885)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: Translation studiorum / Theories of mixture / John Philoponus / Al-Kindi / Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi / Syriac theology / Arabic medicine / Arabic philosophy

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Ancient Greek philosophy was a great inspiration to Medieval philosophy and science in a wide range of different areas around the Mediterranean sea. This process of "translatio studiorum", or "transmission of knowledge", is widely known as one of the most important turning points of Western history of ideas; yet it remains to be precisely studied how particular concepts evolved when being transmitted from the Greek world to other cultural traditions such as the Middle East Syriac and Arabic ones. This research is shedding some light on how Greek theories of "mixture", elaborated in the realm of Greek speculative physics, were re-used in theological texts transmitted to the Syriac tradition (Philoponus) as well as medical and philosophical works by prominent Arabic philosophers such as al-Kindi and Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi. The treatise "On parts and the whole" by Philoponus is an important testimony of Christian theological use of Greek discussions about the way ingredients in a mixture (parts) continue to exist in the product of mixture (whole). The "Pharmacological computus" by al-Kindi builds up an original system to calculate the powers of mixed drugs; while being based on the Greek physician Galen's pharmacological theories, this system is very innovative since it introduces a logarythmic way to account for the powers of mixed drugs. Finally, al-Baghdadi's still unpublished treatise "On Mixture" is a synthesis of Arabic philosophy and Greek sources such as Neoplatonism and the Peripatetic philosopher Alexander of Aphrodisias.

Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

According to the initial Research Plan, FY2016 was dedicated to preliminary research on the three texts of the corpus (Philoponus, al-Kindi, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi), including making first-hand translations and checking them by comparison with existing translations when they exist, collecting bibliographical material on the three authors and their respective context in the history of ideas, and compiling lexicological information on technical terms about "mixture" in Greek, Syriac and Arabic.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

As stated in the Research Plan for FY2017, future work on the corpus will try to answer the question of continuity and/or innovation in the re-use of Greek philosophical concepts by Christian theology, Arabic medicine and Arabic philosophy. While there are obvious changes in theoretical approach from the Greek to the Syriac and Arabic traditions, one has still to understand more precisely how new issues in the later ones relate to the old conceptual tools and philosophical issues inherited from Greek philosophy and Greek science. Research work in FY2017 will also aim at finalizing translations of the corpus and providing a provisional edition of the still unpublished al-Baghdadi's text; yet the research trip to Bursa, Turkey, to study the manuscript of this text may have to be cancelled due to bad security conditions in Turkey; it would then be replaced by a trip to European libraries to collect bibliographial material unavailable in Japan.