Edition of the Arabic Text of the

Liber de causis / Kalâm fî mahd al-khair

Proclus Arabus: Collaborative work with Cristina d’Ancona (Pisa, Italy) and Gerhard Endress (Bochum, Germany) in preparing critical editions and French and English translations of the extant Arabic translations of the works of Proclus, including the Liber de causis / Kalâm fî mahd al-khair. More information forthcoming.

The Aquinas and the Arabs International Working Group (AAIWG)

www.AquinasAndTheArabs.org

    Together with my Marquette colleague, Prof. David B. Twetten, I founded the “Aquinas and the Arabs” project at Marquette University with the support and encouragement of colleagues at Marquette and elsewhere. The general purpose of the AAIWG is to promote sound cross cultural and interreligious understanding through insightful studies of the common philosophical interests and principles of Thomas Aquinas and of the Arabic tradition broadly construed to include thinkers of the Abrahamic faiths working and living in the context of Medieval Islam. The project’s first conference was July 8, 2006; text seminars featured four speakers annually in its first two years.

    In a 2008 meeting with Dr Adriano Oliva, O.P., head of the Commissio Leonina in Paris (responsible for the preparation of the critical editions of the works of Thomas Aquinas), an agreement was reached that the “Aquinas and the Arabs” project at Marquette should move to work cooperatively with the Commissio Leonina on the Latin translations of Arabic philosophical works and their understanding and interpretation by Thomas Aquinas.

    The AAIWG as now conceived involves the production of translations and studies of the works and teachings of Aquinas as they are influenced by philosophical materials from the Arabic tradition (including the Jewish thinker, Moses Maimonides).  Arrangements have been made to work regularly in the AAIWG with Dr. Oliva.  The purpose of this collaboration is to better the understanding of the philosophical and theological work of Thomas Aquinas in its proper context and to highlight features and issues common to the three Abrahamic faiths.  Dr Oliva (and other members of the Commissio Leonina) will assist by providing unpublished critical texts of Aquinas, by providing informed comment on accounts of the thought of Aquinas, particularly in areas of special theological concerns beyond the expertise of Project members, and in other yet to be specified ways.  In turn the AAIWG will be providing assistance to Dr Oliva and others of the Commissio Leonina with understanding the meanings of the philosophical texts from the Arabic tradition which were so important to the development of the thought of Aquinas. (In some cases this may prove valuable for determining correct manuscript readings in the tradition of the works of Aquinas, Dr Oliva has remarked.)  We expect that this will be a multi-year collaboration.

    In connection with the AAIWG, Dr Oliva visited Marquette in October 2008 and made a presentation on the importance of philosophy to the development of the theological thought of Aquinas to the Theology and Philosophy Departments. Dr. Oliva also a featured speaker at the October 11-12, 2008, Aquinas and the Arabs Conference. (For information, click HERE.)  

    The first annual Spring conference, Thomas d’Aquin et ses sources arabes / Aquinas and the Arabs, took place March 27-28, 2009, at the Bibliothèque du Saulchoir in Paris.Two research conferences are held annually in Fall at Marquette University in Milwaukee and in Spring at the Bibliothèque du Saulchoir in Paris. (For information, click HERE.)

    The AAIWG  aspires to the production of several volumes of English studies and translations of works of Aquinas and the Arabic sources that were important stimulants in the development of his philosophical and theological teachings.  Each will contain English translations of relevant philosophical texts of Aquinas together with translations of the Arabic sources in Latin translation used by Aquinas. There will also be reference to and discussion of those sources in Arabic in their own philosophical context.  That is, the studies on teachings and arguments will reference Aquinas, the Latin translations, and the original Arabic where available. As presently conceived, the first major project of the AAIWG will address the early work of Aquinas in his first encounter with the Arabic philosophers in his Commentary on the Sentences and in his De ente et essentia  Subsequent studies will be on his middle and late periods through his final years when he commented on the Liber de causis and was at a high point of his intellectual powers.

Other Research Activities

    Currently I am involved in the international project, “Noétique et théorie de la connaissance dans la philosophie arabe des IXe –XVIIe siècles” sponsored by the Centre Nationale de Recherches Scientifiques, France, directed by Meryem Sebti and Daniel de Smet. This is a project in the study of the vocabulary and key teachings of the Arabic philosophical tradition on thought and knowledge. All participants are kept informed of the Paris presentations with summaries and handouts shared via the Internet. In November 2008 I presented my seminar on Ibn Rushd / Averroes at Paris. The contributions of the collaborators in this project will be published by Drs. Sebti and de Smet in a volume funded by the CNRS.

Page under construction. More forthcoming.