The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Philosopher

Abu Bakr al-Razi

865–925 CE

Also known as Rhazes, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi

Physician and controversial philosopher who held that the world arose from five eternal principles, and was reported to have argued that reason, not prophecy, guides us.

Abu Bakr al-Razi, known in Latin Europe as Rhazes, was one of the greatest physicians of the Islamic world. He was born in Rayy, a Persian city close to present-day Tehran, and directed hospitals both there and in Baghdad. His medical works were studied in Europe into the Renaissance, and his Doubts about Galen criticises the greatest medical authority of his day on philosophical as well as medical points.

His philosophy survives mostly in reports by hostile authors, so much of it has to be reconstructed. His only complete surviving works devoted to philosophy are two ethical treatises, The Spiritual Medicine and The Philosophical Way of Life; in the latter he defends himself for modelling his life on Socrates. Critics, especially Ismaili writers, attacked his cosmology and his reported views on prophecy, but Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, from the same city, took up his account of time and place. How far he rejected prophecy remains disputed.

Key ideas

Five eternal principles
The cosmos was produced by the interaction of five things that have always existed, God, Soul, matter, time and place. Creation from nothing is impossible, and time and place cannot be created, since creation must happen at some time and somewhere.
The foolish Soul
The world’s suffering shows it was not made directly by God. The Soul, foolish where God is wise, desired to mix with matter; God allowed this so the Soul could learn, and gave it reason to see that it must free itself from matter.
Atoms, void and absolute time and place
Unlike most philosophers of his world, al-Razi was an atomist. Time in itself is eternal duration and place an infinite void, both independent of bodies, a view he thought closest to Plato’s.
The philosophical way of life
The truly philosophical life imitates God through wisdom and justice towards all living things, including animals. Pleasures are allowed within a limit, but not those that bring more pain in the long run, or that require injustice.
Region
Rayy and Baghdad

Influences

Influenced by

Abu Bakr al-Razi865–925 CE

Influenced

Influenced by

Abu Bakr al-Razi865–925 CE

Influenced

Where these links come from
  • Abu Bakr al-Razi drew on Socrates. Source: Peter Adamson, Abu Bakr al-Razi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Abu Bakr al-Razi drew on Plato. Source: Peter Adamson, Abu Bakr al-Razi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Fakhr al-Din al-Razi drew on Abu Bakr al-Razi. Source: Peter Adamson and Fedor Benevich, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Key works

  • The Spiritual Medicine
  • The Philosophical Way of Life
  • Doubts about Galen

Sources

  1. Peter Adamson, Abu Bakr al-Razi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy