Ibn Bajja

Ibn Bajja, known in Latin as Avempace, was an Andalusian philosopher, scientist and musician born in Zaragoza who later worked in Seville and Granada and died in Fez. He was among the first in al-Andalus to develop the Aristotelian philosophy of al-Farabi, and his commentaries and treatises influenced Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd. His best-known work considers how a philosopher can pursue the highest human good while living in an imperfect city.

Key ideas

• The highest human perfection is the intellect's conjunction with the Active Intellect.
• In an imperfect city the philosopher may have to live as a 'solitary', governing himself towards that end.
• Philosophers in a corrupt society are like weeds (nawābit), growing apart from the dominant order.
• In his commentary on Aristotle's Physics he argued, against Aristotle, that motion through a void would still take time.

Major works

• Tadbīr al-Mutawaḥḥid (The Governance of the Solitary)
• Risālat al-Ittiṣāl (Letter on the Conjunction of the Intellect with Man)
• Kitāb al-Nafs (On the Soul)

In the conversation

• Question Does philosophy make you better at your actual job, or just more annoying at it? Hicham Ouazzani · 7 replies
• Reading group Reading group: Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy ibn Yaqzan as a book about learning without teachers Hessa Al Mazrouei · 6 replies