My whole problem with Philosophy--syntax!

[rabid1st]

So, I'm trying to read up on this absolutely fascinating polymath and philosopher, Avicenna (aka Ibn Sīnā), who lived in 11th Century Persia...only I am struggling to get my mental teeth into sentences like this one:

The Recital of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, means alive son of awake, describes the invitation to travel in the company of the Angel who illuminates.

WHAT?

Is there a beta babe in the house who can do something about this sentence for me?

:headdesk:

Rabid is, generally speaking, a pretty smart cookie but what can you do with...

This philosophy has recognized the compatibility of the metaphysics of contingency, by which Muslim theologians have tried to rationalize the Islamic idea of creation, and the metaphysics of necessity, in which Aristotelians have defended the idea that the goal of philosophy and science is as to understanding why and how things must be as they are. The key to this philosophy is conceptualization of the world as contingent in itself but necessary with references to its causes, leading back to ultimately to the First Cause.

Okay, then! So, now, I'm thinking this has something to do with The First Evil from Buffy Season 7...and like everything from Buffy Season 7...it is now clear as milk!

Comments

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking that first quote is missing a word. Like it should be "...Yaqdhan, which means alive son of awake, describes...". Still...it sounds like a bad translation job. If this was originally written in English? The editor should definitely be shot.

Heh. It could be The First, you never know! lol

[joools.livejournal.com]

could be worse, you could be trying to translate that.

[phdelicious.livejournal.com]

There's a reason I never made it past Intro Philosiphy.

[thefish30.livejournal.com]

First sentence:
This is not English. Definitely a word missing.

Second sentence:
In other words, you've got these two metaphysics, one Muslim, which tries to put a rational spin on their creation story; and one Aristotelian, which posits that the universe is the way it is because there is some sort of intrinsic necessity to it.

Third sentence:
The way they combine these is by saying that the world is contingent (could have been different, depending on how other things were) in and of itself; but necessary (couldn't have been any other way) when you take into account the nature of its cause, aka God.

Google yourself a crash course in diagramming sentences. It will help