The Islamic Renaissance’s Influence on Philosophy

Philosophy as we know it today exists thanks to Islamic scholars who preserved the knowledge of the ancient Greeks. The Islamic world from present-day Spain in the west, to present-day Uzbekistan in the east, had had access to Aristotle going back to as early as the 800s CE, when they discovered ancient Greek manuscripts kept by Christian monasteries in what is now Syria. Islam eventually recovered much of Aristotle’s writings and some more of Plato and other scholars. Islamic philosophy kept alive the tradition of Greek study and learning. Having access to more of Aristotle facilitated Islamic scholars in their explorations of politics and natural philosophy — the study of the natural world. In a quirk of fate, <a href="https://medium.com/inserting-philosophy/historys-most-influential-philosopher-ffef8908cf4b" rel="noopener">Plotinus’s very Platonic book, Enneads</a>, was included in the monastic collections of Aristotle’s manuscripts, but it was mislabeled as being a book written by Aristotle. <a href="https://medium.com/inserting-philosophy/the-islamic-renaissances-influence-on-philosophy-9140a0cda671">Website</a>