Animals in Greek, Arabic, and Latin Philosophy

Peter Adamson, Ph.D. (2000), University of Notre Dame, is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the LMU in Munich. He is the author of Al-Kindī and Al-Razī in the series “Great Medieval Thinkers” and the book series A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps.Miira Tuominen, Ph.D. (2002), University of Helsinki, is Associate Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Stockholm University. She has published articles, books and edited volumes mainly on Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy, including Living with Justice: A Philosophical Study of Porphyry’s On Abstinence (2025).ContributorsPeter Adamson, Tommaso Alpina, Hanif Amin Beidokhti, Zack Candy, Sophia M. Connell, Racha el-Omari, Kosta Gligorijevic, Guy Guldentops, Rotraud Hansberger, Paloma Hernández–Rubio, Tua Korhonen, Behnam Khodapanah, Philip Line, Thornton Lockwood, Ruizhi Ma, Janne Mattila, Robert Mayhew, Michele Meroni, Bahodir Musametov, Giulio Navarra, Marilù Papandreou, Nicolas Payen, Michael Payne, Jens-Ole Schmitt, John Skalko, and Miira Tuominen.

• IntroductionPeter Adamson and Miira Tuominen1 Animals “as if”: Homeric and Oppianic Animal Similes in the Context of Philosophical Discussion on AnimalsTua Korhonen2 Aristotle on Animal Intelligence: A Difference in Degree or by Analogy?Miira Tuominen3 Aristotle on Human Use of Non-human AnimalsSophia M. Connell4 Non-human Animals in the Nicomachean and Eudemian EthicsThornton Lockwood5 Builders and Weavers of the Animal Kingdom: Non-human Poiêsis in Aristotle and the Ancient CommentatorsMarilù Papandreou6 The Divine Enema-Inventing Egyptian IbisRobert Mayhew7 Galen, Priscian, and al-Fārābī on Theodicy and Venomous AnimalsKosta Gligorijevic8 Animal and Human Souls in the Overall Arrangement of the CosmosThe Kindī-Circle’s Adaptation of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ De providentia as a Case Study of the Nascent “Arabic Aristotelianism”Giulio Navarra9 Sensing Dimly in the Light of Reason? Downgrading Animal Perception in Parts of the Arabic Aristotelian TraditionRotraud Hansberger10 Debating Hybridity in al-Jāḥiẓ’s Book of MulesMichael Payne11 The Problem of Animal Suffering in the Brethren of Purity and Abū Bakr al-Rāzī: The Muʿtazilite ContextJanne Mattila12 Classes of Animals in al-Fārābī’s WorksNicolas Payen13 Demarcating Animals from Plants: Abū al-Ḥassan al-‘Āmirī in Dialogue with AvicennaRuizhi Ma14 Something in the Milk: Ibn Abī l-Ashʿath on the Content and Function of Milk for Animals and HumansJens-Ole Schmitt15 Deconstructing the Idea of the Human as the Noblest Animal: A Treatise by Qābūs Ibn WushmgirBehnam Khodanpah16 Ibn Mattawayh’s (fl. Fifth/Eleventh Century) “Chapter on Life” (al-Kalām fī l-ḥayā) and Its Arguments from AnimalsA Preliminary IntroductionRacha el-Omari17 Dogs Fear Mud, the Wooden Stick, and Other Things: Notes on Animal Emotions in AvicennaTommaso Alpina18 Ibn Bājja on the Foundations of the Science of AnimalsBahodir Musametov19 “Unto Him Thou Shalt All Return”: The Resurrection of Animals in Ṣadr al-Dīn ShīrāzīHanif Amin Beidokhti20 Political Allegories or Moral Exemplars? The Role of Animals in Petrus Alfonsi’s Disciplina Clericalis and Its Medieval English ReceptionZack Candy21 Dicit Commentator quod cogitativa in nobis perfectior est quam aestimativa in brutis: How the Latin Averroes Came to Believe in Avicenna’s Estimative PowerMichele Meroni22 The Irrational Language: Albert the Great on the Perception and Language of PygmiesPaloma Hernández-Rubio23 Can Animals Count? How Might Aquinas Explain Recent Cases of Animals Cognizing Quantities or Numbers?John Skalko24 “Loving Animals Has Never Prevented Me from Killing Them”: Later Medieval Scholastics on Moral Behavior toward Non-human AnimalsGuy Guldentops25 “A Dog Must Know Almost Everything”: The Dog in Medieval European Philosophy and Practical TreatisesPhilip LineIndex