Son of the people

In this book, Farah Antoun reviews Ibn Rushd''s philosophy, highlighting its sources, structure, and broad influence that extended to include the East and the West. The writer explains how Ibn Rushd''s ideas were a major cause of the modern European Renaissance, through his influence on Saint Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great, who were inspired by the Averroist philosophy to overcome the intellectual obstacles that were troubling Europeans at the time. The book shows how European Christians faced the contradiction between divine and rational truth, and how Ibn Rushd''s philosophy came to explain that this contradiction is apparent and arises from a misunderstanding of reality or text, paving the way for the European Renaissance. An essential book for understanding the philosophical and historical developments that contributed to the formation of Western thought.