A group of Iranian and Spanish scholars and university students attended the conference at which Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Ahmadi from Tehran’s University of Tarbiat-e Modarres made the opening speech.
Hoj. Ahmadi discussed the issue of wisdom, its limits and its powers according to the views of Avicenna and Averroes.
He explained that in Avicenna’s opinion, wisdom understands the issues related to the materialistic world, but considering those issues beyond the world, it is not able to understand.
“Although Averroes is a follower of Avicenna, he disagrees with Avicenna in different issues and in the meaning of wisdom, Hoj. Ahmadi remarked, and later compared the viewpoints of both philosophers and talked about their ideas.
Iran’s cultural attaché in Spain Ahmad Khezri also delivered a speech on the topic “Avicenna, a physician or a philosopher” and continued, “Despite the vicissitudes of a life full of hardship, Avicenna was one of the most prolific authors in Iran’s history of science.”
“People of Iran and the Orient believe that Avicenna was more of a philosopher, while the Western people regard him primarily as a physician,” Khezri stated.
“The philosophical system of Avicenna has left an enduring influence on the philosophical thoughts in the world of Islam, and although he was inspired by Aristotle, he did not imitate him slavishly and had his own innovations,” he discussed.
“The West made use of the scientific heritage and innovations of Avicenna more and that is why he is introduced more frequently as a physician rather than as a philosopher,” he pinpointed.
Afterwards, other participating scholars gave their lectures including professor of philosophy Rafael Ramon Guerrero who presented his article on “Love in the Idea of Avicenna”, and Saeid Hushangi who discussed “Unknown Character of Averroes.”
The conference ended with Iranian traditional music performed by the “Tarz” band.
Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina, known as Abu Ali Sina and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna was born in c. 980 near Bukhara, contemporary Uzbekistan, and died 1037 in Hamedan, Iran.
He was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. He was also an astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist, soldier, statesman, and teacher.
Abu l-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd better known simply as Ibn Rushd and in European literature as Averroes (1126 –1198), was an Andalusian polymath: a master of early Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics and physics.
He was born in Cordoba, in modern day Spain, and died in Marrakech, in modern day Morocco.
RM/YAW
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MNA