Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
Philosophy and religion cannot contradict each other, because truth is one – and the Qur’an itself commands people to use reason.
Placement
Judge and physician in Córdoba and Seville who commented on almost all of Aristotle: he defended philosophy against al-Ghazali and argued that the Qur’an itself commands demonstrative reasoning for those able to pursue it; in Latin Europe he became simply “the Commentator”.
Key ideas
- Unity of the intellect
- Harmony of philosophy and revelation
Influence
Influenced by 5
Plato
influenced by ✓
Lacking Aristotle’s Politics, Averroes commented on Plato’s Republic (c. 1194), applying its account of degenerating regimes to the states of his own time. Averroes, Commentary on Plato’s Republic, tr. R. Lerner, Averroes on Plato’s Republic (1974); SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Aristotle
influenced by ✓
Averroes commented on almost all of Aristotle’s works, in short, middle and long commentaries, seeking to recover Aristotle’s own doctrine from later Neoplatonic additions. SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”; H. A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect (1992)
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
al-Farabi
influenced by ✓
Averroes took up al-Farabi’s view that demonstrative, dialectical and rhetorical arguments suit different audiences, arguing that philosophy and the revealed law agree (Decisive Treatise, c. 1179). Ibn Rushd, Fasl al-maqal (c. 1179), tr. C. E. Butterworth, The Book of the Decisive Treatise (2001); SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”; SEP “al-Farabi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
al-Farabi › c. 872–950
Ibn Bajja (Avempace)
influenced by ✓
Averroes took up Ibn Bajja’s account of the intellect’s conjunction with the Active Intellect and discussed his views on motion in the void in his Physics commentary. Ibn Rushd, Long Commentary on the Physics; Long Commentary on De anima; SEP “Ibn Bajja [Avempace]”
Ibn Bajja (Avempace) › c. 1085–1138
Ibn Tufayl
influenced by ✓
According to Averroes’ own account, preserved by al-Marrakushi, Ibn Tufayl introduced him to the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf and prompted his commentaries on Aristotle. al-Marrakushi, al-Mujib (1224); L. E. Goodman, Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan (1972), introduction; SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Ibn Tufayl › c. 1105–1185
Influenced 8
Albertus Magnus
influenced
Albert used Averroes’ commentaries throughout his Aristotle paraphrases, while rejecting his single intellect for all humans (De unitate intellectus contra Averroem, 1256). Albertus Magnus, De unitate intellectus contra Averroem (1256); SEP “Albert the Great”
Evidence: AI draft
Albertus Magnus › c. 1200–1280
Siger of Brabant
influenced ✓
Siger followed Averroes in reading Aristotle as teaching a single intellect shared by all humans (Questions on De anima III, late 1260s) and later qualified this view. Siger of Brabant, Quaestiones in tertium De anima; De anima intellectiva (c. 1273); SEP “Siger of Brabant”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Siger of Brabant › c. 1240–1284
Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom)
influenced
Gersonides wrote supercommentaries on the Hebrew versions of many of Averroes’ commentaries on Aristotle, mostly in the early 1320s, and discussed his theory of the intellect. SEP “Gersonides”; SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
Evidence: AI draft
Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom) › 1288–1344
Ibn Khaldun
influenced ✓
According to his contemporary and friend Ibn al-Khatib, the young Ibn Khaldun wrote several summaries of works by Averroes, besides books on logic and arithmetic. Ibn al-Khatib, al-Ihata fi akhbar Gharnata (notice on Ibn Khaldun); F. Rosenthal, introduction to Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah (1958)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Ibn Khaldun › 1332–1406
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
influenced
Pico studied Averroes in Padua with Elia del Medigo, who prepared texts for him, and included forty-one theses ‘according to Averroes’ in his 900 Conclusions (1486). G. Pico della Mirandola, Conclusiones (1486); G. Licata, Secundum Avenroem: Pico della Mirandola, Elia del Medigo e la «seconda rivelazione» di Averroè (2022)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola › 1463–1494
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri
influenced
Al-Jabri took Averroes as the model of the demonstrative rationalism of the Muslim West and called for its revival in contemporary Arab thought (We and the Heritage, 1980). M. A. al-Jabri, Nahnu wa-l-turath (1980); Arab-Islamic Philosophy: A Contemporary Critique, tr. A. Abbassi (1999)
Evidence: AI draft
Mohammed Abed al-Jabri › 1935–2010
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Roger Bacon
influenced
Bacon used Averroes’ commentaries in his Paris lectures on Aristotle in the 1240s and cited him as an authority in the Opus maius (1267). Roger Bacon, Quaestiones supra libros Physicorum; Opus maius (1267); SEP “Roger Bacon”
Evidence: AI draft
Roger Bacon › c. 1219–1292
Marsilius of Padua
influenced disputed
Older research called Marsilius’ separation of political reason from faith ‘Averroist’; whether the Defensor pacis (1324) draws on Averroes himself is disputed. Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis (1324); A. Gewirth, Marsilius of Padua and Medieval Political Philosophy (1951)
Evidence: AI draft
Marsilius of Padua › c. 1275–1342
Criticism
Criticized by 4
Bonaventure
criticised by
Bonaventure attacked the Averroist teaching of a single intellect for all humans, which in his view abolished personal immortality and responsibility (Collationes de decem praeceptis, 1267). Bonaventure, Collationes de decem praeceptis II (1267); Collationes in Hexaemeron VI (1273); SEP “Saint Bonaventure”
Evidence: AI draft
Bonaventure › c. 1221–1274
Thomas Aquinas influenced
influenced ✓
Aquinas used Averroes as ‘the Commentator’ throughout his Aristotle commentaries, even while writing against his single intellect for all humans. Thomas Aquinas, Sentencia libri De anima; In Metaphysicam; C. Burnett, ‘Arabic into Latin’, in P. Adamson / R. C. Taylor (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (2005); SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
criticised by
Aquinas argued that Averroes’ single intellect for all humans contradicts both Aristotle and the experience that it is the individual human being who thinks (De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas, 1270). Thomas Aquinas, De unitate intellectus contra Averroistas (1270); Summa theologiae I q. 76 a. 2
Evidence: AI draft
Thomas Aquinas › c. 1225–1274
Pietro Pomponazzi
criticised by
Pomponazzi rejected Averroes’ single intellect for all humans as contrary to Aristotle and to experience, concluding that natural reason shows the soul to be mortal (1516). P. Pomponazzi, Tractatus de immortalitate animae (1516); SEP “Pietro Pomponazzi”
Evidence: AI draft
Pietro Pomponazzi › 1462–1525
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
criticised by
Leibniz rejected the Averroist doctrine of a single intellect shared by all human beings in his “Considerations on the Doctrine of a Single Universal Spirit” (1702) and in the Preliminary Discourse of the Theodicy (1710). Leibniz, Considérations sur la doctrine d’un esprit universel unique (1702); Essais de Théodicée (1710), Discours préliminaire
Evidence: AI draft
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz › 1646–1716
Criticizes 3
al-Ashari
criticised
Averroes rejected the Asharite proof of God from the createdness of atoms and accidents, and their denial of natural causes, as unsound (al-Kashf an manahij al-adilla, 1179). Ibn Rushd, al-Kashf ʿan manāhij al-adilla (1179); SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
Evidence: AI draft
al-Ashari › c. 874–936
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
criticised
Averroes faulted Avicenna for making existence an accident added to essence and for departing from Aristotle in concessions to the theologians (Tahafut al-tahafut). Ibn Rushd, Tahāfut al-tahāfut; Long Commentary on the Metaphysics; SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
Evidence: AI draft
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) › 980–1037
al-Ghazali
criticised
Averroes answered al-Ghazali’s Incoherence point by point: whoever denies natural causes denies the intellect, since knowledge is knowledge through causes (Tahafut al-tahafut, c. 1180). Ibn Rushd, Tahāfut al-tahāfut, 17th discussion, tr. S. van den Bergh, 1954
Evidence: AI draft
al-Ghazali › 1058–1111
Works
A legal opinion on philosophy: the Qur’an itself commands demonstrative reasoning for those able to pursue it, and where proof and the plain sense of scripture conflict, scripture is to be interpreted.
A point-by-point defense of philosophy against al-Ghazali.
Line-by-line commentaries on Aristotle; many survive only in Hebrew or Latin translation, through which they shaped Jewish and Latin Aristotelianism.
Position
Averroes wanted to recover the true Aristotle from the Neoplatonic additions of his predecessors. In the Decisive Treatise he argued that the Qur’an itself commands philosophical reflection, and that where scripture seems to conflict with demonstration it must be read allegorically – truth cannot contradict truth. In The Incoherence of the Incoherence he defended philosophy point by point against al-Ghazali. His most controversial thesis held that there is only one material intellect for all humankind. Translated into Latin and Hebrew, his commentaries made him simply “the Commentator” in Europe and gave rise to Latin Averroism, against which Aquinas wrote.
Life & context
Ibn Rushd was born in 1126 in Córdoba into a family of judges and served as a judge in Seville and Córdoba and as court physician to the Almohad caliphs. Encouraged by the caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, he wrote commentaries on almost all of Aristotle. Late in life he briefly fell from favour and was banished; he died in Marrakesh in 1198.
Further main works
- The Decisive Treatise (c. 1179)
- The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer (c. 1188)
Appears in
- Journey ‘The Journey of Aristotle’ · Stop 6 of 9
- Journey ‘From Baghdad to Isfahan’ · Stop 5 of 9
- Debate ‘Al-Ghazali and Averroes: Can Philosophy Prove What It Claims?’
As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made