Al-Kindi’s Classification dan Al-Razi: Sciences are Based on Experiences and Reasoning (The Tree of Islamic Knowledge and Science 2)

Al-Kindi’s Classification dan Al-Razi: Sciences are Based on Experiences and Reasoning (The Tree of Islamic Knowledge and Science 2)

Al-Kindi’s Classification

Al-Kindi, Abu Yusuf, (the first Muslim philosopher, d. 873) had an P’ encyclopaedic cholarship in the scientific knowledge of his day, including avariety of subjects such as mathematics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, theory of music, physics, medicine, harmacy, politics and geography. He {was well acquainted with the philosophical views of Socrates, Plato, and {Aristotle He was also a student of Comparative Religion. In Muslim {theology he was flourishing sect of Mutazilism. He wrote on all subjects; the i number of his treatises amount to 265. He was essentially an effort to first bring about reconciliation between science and philosophy, on the one hand, Al and of both with religion, on the other. He brought science and philosophy ‘ close together so strongly, that nobody could be a philosopher without being 'thoroughly disciplined in mathematics. This was confirmed by his own mathematical applications of quantitative methods in the fields of medicine, " optics, music, etc. First he applied mathematics to the theory of music on which subject he wrote seven books.

According to al-Kindi every object is a mirror of the universe; one is the microcosm, if the other is the macrocosm. It is possible to understand the < whole scheme of things in the universe from a single existent thing if it is; thoroughly known.

The fundamental principles goveming the physical universe are named ‘essences’ by al-Kindi. There are matter, form, movement, time and space, land are presented in a treatise, on the Five Essences this scheme of essences iis based upon his knowledge of Aristotle's physics and metaphysics.

AL-Kindi‘s theory of intellect, as expounded in his treatise ‘On the ghitellect’. He describes the degrees of reason or intellect in four points :

1. Active intellect (aql foal).
2. Latent or potential intellect (aql byyulani),
3. Acquired intellect (aql mustafud).
4. Manifest intellect (aql zahir).

Al-Razi: Sciences are Based on Experiences and Reasoning

Al-Razi (Rhazeh d. 925), Abu-Baker Muhammad Ibn-Zakariya, was an outstanding physician of the oriental world and an Iranian rationalistic. He is alled al-Razi because of his birthplace Ray, a town near modern Tehran. He as the greatest clinical physician of the medial world. His supreme chievement was the discovery of the true nature of smallpox. In his books al-I-Iawi (Continens) and Rasail Falsofiyah (Epistles of Philosophy) he mentioned that rational sciences (al-Ulum al-Aqliyah) are practical sciences that include medicine, alchemy, mathematics, music, economics and politics. According to him, by practical sciences we can achieve the good for society and attain the truth. Acquired knowledge is that when is gained

through the search of evidence and demonstration (Nazar). This kind of knowledge can either be hidden (Khafiy) or manifest (Jaliy) in its relation to necessary self-evident knowledge-that is, the closer it is to necessary knowledge, the more manifest it is. The signs of knowledge are of two kinds, the visible and the invisible. Visible signs are known by necessity as self- evident, whereas invisible signs are known through demonstration with the id of the visible signs. In some of his books, such as Hijaj al-Mutanabhin, he seems to maintain that reason is superior to revelation. As a philosopher, al- Razi is an original and independent thinker. He does not follow the path of Aristotelian physics and metaphysics.

In his physics, al-Razi challenges the Aristotelian doctrine. His atomism is different from that of the many Muslim atomists, and is related more closely to the system of Democritus. Like Newton, al-Razi considers absolute time as an independent substance, which in itself, and from its own nature, flows with a uniform speed. It existed before the creation of the world and will exist even after its dissolution.

In his book entitled ‘Life of the Philosophers‘ (al~Sirat al-Falsofiyah), he has described philosophy as not a mere learning but a way of life: a knowing and acting accordingly“)

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