Sharon Hagenbeek

Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindī (circa 801–873) was the first systematic[1] philosopher in the Islamic tradition; Adamson even goes so far as to call him “the first self-consciously “philosophical” thinker”[2]. However, Leezenberg points out that most contemporary thinkers aren’t that imprested with al-Kindī, and Leezenberg does seem to count himself among them[3]. Among Muslims al-Kindī carries the title of ‘the Arab Philosopher’ (Faylasuf al-’Arab)[4], and he was the first Muslim to be titled philosopher during his own lifetime. Although some might not find him important – he is not even mentioned in 25 eeuwen Oosterse Filosofie[5] – he does play a vital role in the translation and assimilation process of the Ancient Greek text into Arabic, and is also the first to use these translations for his own philosophical writings. With al-Kindī a tradition was born.

Al-Kindī thought the Greek heritage could play an important role in the development of Kalām, specifically Mu‘tazilite thinking. Fakhry credits him for “his role in seeking to bridge the gap between philosophy and dogma”[6]. In order to bring the Arabic heritage and philosophy closer together, he had to show the relevance of the Ancient Greek thinkers. He realized that this required creating a new philosophical vocabulary in Arabic. Thanks to his hard work on this front, the Islamic philosophical tradition was able to take off.

For many years al-Kindī was a teacher and astrologist at the ‘Abbāsid court of first caliph al-Ma’mūn (813-833), and, after al-Ma’mūn’s death, of caliph al-Mu‘taṣim (833-842). Al-Kindī even dedicated his main work fi al-falsafat al-awla (On First Philosophy) to the latter caliph. Being philosopher at this court, al-Kindī was appointed to supervise the translations being made in the House of Wisdom, even though he spoke no Greek or Syriac (most of the texts found their way from Greek into Arabic via the Syrian language). Since its opening, the House of Wisdom allowed for a group of translators to gather around al-Kindī. They welcomed him as their leader because of his efforts to get their work more accepted among the religious community. Al-Kindī, in turn, made use of the finished up translations in his philosophical and scientific work. His work covers a number of fields; he wrote about logic, astrology, metaphysics, ethics, medicine, mathematics, psychology, and optics. Throughout his scientific diversity we can distinguish a complete system.

In al-Kindī’s work we find a mixture of Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thinking that has been characteristic for the further development of falsafa. The biggest influence on al-Kindī’s work has been the Greek Neo-Platonic tradition. Al-Kindī was familiar with multiple versions of Plotinus’ Enneads and Proclus’ Elements of Theology. As mentioned, these books were known in Arabic as respectively Theology of Aristotle and Book on the Pure Good. Besides this work ‘by Aristotle’ he also had access to volumes of Neo-Platonic commentators on the work of Aristotle, such as John Philoponus and Prophyry. For al-Kindī, Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thought probably would have seemed compatible and even complementing to each other.

Al-Kindī’s Metaphysics
Al-Kindī sets out his metaphysics in fi al-Falsafah al-Ūlā. He lets the reader know that he intents to follow Aristotle and although he does give a theological reading of Aristotle, he doesn’t adhere to Aristotle philosophically.

Metaphysics is for al-Kindī chiefly the study of God, the First Cause or First Principle. God is the first truth that is being sought in this field. Later thinkers, like al-Fārābī and Avicenna, would come to view it more as the study of Being, and thus define more of a distinction between theology and metaphysics.

According to al-Kindī, everything that can be said includes an inherent multiplicity, so there is nothing that can be described as an absolute unity or oneness. There is no pure multiplicity. God is nothing other than pure oneness (wāḥid, the divine unity: tauḥīd). For al-Kindī the logical conclusion is that nothing can be said about God; we cannot even know anything real about God. As the creator, God possesses his qualities or attributes absolutely, and has no opposed characteristics within himself. Because of this line of thinking, al-Kindī defends Creatio ex Nihilo. God is an agent (al-fa`il, which also means: efficient cause), the true agent, so God is not just the first cause. With this al-Kindī follows the Neo-Platonist Ammonius. With the idea of agency al-Kindī makes a crucial contribution to the Islamic tradition, because with this he has combined Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thought. God is as an agent completely active and in no way passive. Created things can only be an agent in a metaphorical sense, they only pass activity along in the chain of causes, they are therefore secondary causes. The image that emerges here looks a lot like Plato’s theory of Ideas, but al-Kindī was not familiar with the actual work of Plato, only via indirect reading. This also means that al-Kindī uses the Neo-Platonic concept of emanation, but in more Aristotelian words when he speaks about bringing something into actuality, when he is describing the act of creation. Through this actualizing the One resonates into all things.

Un-Aristotelian, al-Kindī rejects the notion of an eternal world. In his argument for this rejection, he even follows the late Greek Christian Neo-Platonist John Philoponus, when he says that the created world just can’t be eternal, because time, and therefore movement, must have a beginning[7]. And secondly, his use of the doctrine of oneness (tauḥīd) does not stroke with the Aristotelian heritage.

Al- Kindī’s psychology
In his work On the Intellect, al-Kindī puts forth his psychology. There is a First Intellect, which is independent and immaterial; though interestingly enough, in his writings he does not refer to this intellect as God. This intellect is responsible for, or, in other words: the cause of, the transformation of our potential intellect into actuality. After this actualization the First Intellect remains present in our own intellect as a concept, because otherwise thought would not be possible in our intellect. The received concept is the acquired intellect.

Al-Kindī thinks that the I merely receives the sensible form; for example, I do not see the squirrel, but a representation of a squirrel. In turn this form should be separated from the pure immaterial concept of the squirrel, because that is a universal form. It is up to the soul to form the right interpretation of the representations that are given.

Al- Kindī also makes a distinction between the faculties of sensation and those of the intellect. The first is connected to Aristotle’s imagination (quwwa muṣawwira). This faculty provides us with the representations, after which we merge these representations into knowledge via the faculty of our intellect. This might not seem relevant at first, but it is a very important element for the Islamic tradition: with this distinction al-Kindī is able to adequately explain the revelations of Muhammad. A pure and well prepared soul can see, through revelations, the forms of sensible things and with this, look into the future. Al-Kindī’s theory of knowledge is crucial to his treatise on the soul. The soul is a simple substance, immortal, immaterial, and only connected to the material world via the faculties it uses through the physical body. The sensible faculty keeps the soul away from the real and intelligible world. It is important for the soul to concentrate on her intellectual side. Philosophy is the highest achievement for mankind, and therefore it is vital to have a good understanding of God, because this understanding provides us with the purification of the soul.

In terms of psychology Al-Kindī provides us with a complementary cosmology. Some souls go through the purification through the spheres that are closer to the One. Within his cosmology these spheres are made up of four elements, all of which passively undergo the emanation. This is different for the heavens – the planets that are closer to the One also pass along the emanation, they are agents. Besides this psychological element, Al-Kindī, has also defined all the elements in the hierarchy of the cosmos; his cosmology is therefore also a complete one.