Aldeous P.

Positos

Introduction

Abu Yusuf Yaq1ub ibn Ishaq al-Sabbah Al-Kindi also

known as Al kindi was the first recognized
philosopher of the Arabic tradition. His works are
greatly influenced by the Greek philosopher, even
once he collaborated with a team of translators to
translate Aristotle, Neoplatonist, Greek
mathematician, and scientist. His treaties relied on
these translations, which included the famous books
of Aristotle. On the First Philosophy, and On the
Intellect are one of the many famous writings on his
philosophical works which discuss God and
Knowledge.1

John Duns Scotus was one of the most important and

influential Philosopher-Theologian of the high middle
Ages. His brilliantly complex and nuanced thought
which earned him the name “Subtle Doctor”. Scotus
1

1 1
Adamson, Peter. “Al-Kindi.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford
University, February 21, 2020. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-kindi/.
 was ordained to the priesthood in the order of Friars
Minor, The Franciscans at Saint Andrew’s Priory in
Northampton England. Moreover, He offers an
overview of some of his key positions in Four main
areas of Philosophy, Natural Theology, Metaphysics,
the Theory

Metaphysics

Al-kindi’s goal in his book called metaphysics is to

explain that there are things that exist without matter
and are not connected or united to matter; to affirm
God’s oneness, the great and exalted, to explain His
great names, and to show that He is the agent cause of
the universe, which governs through his flawless
grace and complete wisdom.3 God;s absolute oneness,
which Al-kindi believes is a unique feature linked
with God, is central to his view of metaphysics 4. As a
Result, only God is truly one, both in actuality and in
notion, devoid of any multiplicity.5 In his book, he
discusses that God is calls the “True one” which is
the cause of beings in the world and that God can
create from ex nihilo.

33
damson, Peter. “Al-Kindi.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, February 21, 2020.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-kindi/.
44
Corbin 1993, p. 155
55
ibid.
 The philosophical discipline responsible for proving
God's existence is metaphysics. God's existence is the
goal of metaphysics6 Scotus follows Aristotle in
identifying matter as what persists through substantial
change and substantial form as what makes a given
parcel of matter the definite, unique, individual
substance that it is. (There are also accidental forms,
which are a substance’s accidental qualities.) He
elaborates his views on form and matter, he Espouses
Three important theses that mark him off from some
other philosophers of his day; He holds that Matte
can exist without any form whatsoever, that not at all
created substance are composite of form and Matter,
and that one same substance can have more than
substantial form.7Scotus maintains with Avicenna
that metaphysics studies being qua being. Of course,
among beings, God is preeminent: He is the only
perfect being, the being on which all others depend.
These facts explain why God occupies the most
important place in metaphysics. However, what
makes God a proper subject for metaphysics is not
that he is God, but that he is a being. Metaphysics
also includes the study of the transcendentals, which
“transcend” the Aristotelian scheme of the categories.
The transcendentals include being, the proper
66
Richard Cross, Duns Scotus, Great Medieval Thinkers. Ed. Brian Davies, Blackfriars, University of Oxford,
and Fordham University, Oxford University Press. New York 1999. Page.37.
77
Thomas Williams, “John Duns Scotus,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Stanford University,
October 11, 2019), https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/#Met.
 attributes of being (“one,” “true,” and “good” are
transcendental terms, because they are coextensive
with “being,” each signifying one of being’s proper
attributes), and what is signified by disjunctions that
are coextensive with “being,” such as “finite or
infinite” and “necessary or contingent.” However,
anything capable of real existence also falls under the
heading of “being qua being” and so may be studied
in metaphysics.7

Comment/similar/different

I can say that the two philosophers have

commonalities because for Al kindi he believed that
God is simple and all of his attributes are identical
with his essence, as an idea of Divine Simplicity. For
Scotus it signify that God is simple and his attributes
are not distinct from his essence. In addition, they
used both of them the Principle of Causality that there
is something that causes all the beings in the world.
However, there differentiate that Al kindi believed in
the eterniry of the world, while Scotus held that the
world was created in time by God.

77
Internet encyclopedia of philosophy, accessed April 25, 2023,
https://iep.utm.edu/john-duns-scotus/#H2.
Philosophy of God

Al kindi, God is a causative entity. / God, acoording

to Al kindi, is an active player who serves as a final
and efficient cause. The major premise of Al-kindi’s
Theodicy is the rejection of God’s positive traits in
favor of his negative attributes; His goal was to
underline God’s total transcendence over the world. /
He chose the demonstration based on creation to
prove God’s existence because It demonstrate God as
the Necessary Being, supreme Creator, and source of
order and administration in the universe. / he used the
negative theology of Neo-platonic origin as a key to
grasping, from a human perspective, what was
intended by God. In other words, he held, human
beings could say what God was not, while they found
it impossible to say what he was. /

For John Duns Scotus, He begins by arguing that

there is a First Agent (A being that is First in
Efficient Causality) Consider the First the distinction
between essentially ordered causes and accidentally
ordered causes, He Argue that there is an Ultimate
Goal of Activity (A Being that is First in Final
Causality) and a Maximally Excellent Being (A
Being that is First in what Scotus calls “Pre-
Eminence” (Standford)
I can say that their Philosophy of God is very related
to their metaphysics because just like in their
metaphysics they both affirm that God is the cause of
Everything. They both used the principle of Causality
to affirm that God exist.

Anthropology

Al kindi, he proposes that the soul is an immaterial

substance that is greatly related to the material world
only because of its faculties. which operates through
the physical body. To explained the nature of our
worldly existence. He borrowed the Analogy of a
ship by Epictetus. He compares to a ship during the
course of its ocean voyage, temporarily anchored
itself at an island and allowed its passenger to
disembark. He claims that the soul is not tied to the
body and when the body dies the soul does not die;
He also proposes that our soul can be directed
towards the pursuit of intellect. On human nature he
does not explicit claim but we can infer that the
nature of humans is good and that it is stained by the
pleasures present in the world.

For John Duns Scotus, Human nature is distinguished

by the present of a rational soul in the person. While
 it may be corrected to consider that Human Nature as
the rational (Image)species of the genus animal. It is
more important that Human soul is made in God’s
image. That image exist can be known by its effect
(Human nature), but what it is as being a cause in
God, transcends our knowledge. Thus, Humans
participate in God but cannot grasp equality with
God. By its standing in the hierarchy, Human nature
is a Microcosm summing up creation.

Epistemology

Al kindi epistemology, He speaks that there was a

separate of incorporeal and universal intellect which
he calls the “First Intellect”, He proposes that the
“First Intellect”8 serves as the External source for
intelligent forms. And Proposes that the first intellect
should always be on an act. The first intellect, hence
is not God, but it is the first of God’s creation and
serves as intermediary in which all other things came
into creation.

8 8
 Klein-Franke 2001, p. 168.
Bibliography

Adamson, Peter. “Al-Kindi.” Stanford Encyclopedia

of Philosophy. Stanford University, February 21,
2020.
https://plato.stanford.edu/ENTRIES/al-kindi/#Met.

Adamson, Peter. “Al-Kindi.” Stanford Encyclopedia

of Philosophy. Stanford University, February 21,
2020. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-kindi/.

“Al-Kindi.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, April

17, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-
Kindi#:~:text=Al%2DKindi%20theorized%20that
%20there,other%20things%20came%20into
%20creation.

Corbin, Henry. “History of Islamic Philosophy.”

Google Books. Kegan Paul International. Accessed
April 25, 2023.
https://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_Isl
amic_Philosophy.html?id=DH8EAQAAIAAJ.

Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Accessed April

25, 2023. https://iep.utm.edu/john-duns-scotus/#H2.
 Williams, Thomas. “John Duns Scotus.” Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University,
October 11, 2019.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/#Met.

Williams, Thomas. “John Duns Scotus.” Stanford

Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University,
October 11, 2019.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/duns-scotus/.

 Klein-Franke, Felix (2001). "Al-Kindi". In Leaman, Oliver; Nasr, Hossein (eds.). History

of Islamic Philosophy. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415131599.