Averroism

Averroism. Averroes (Ibn Rushd, 1126–98) was from an important Muslim family of Córdoba in Spain. From 1182 to 1195 he was chief physician to the caliph at Marrakesh. His fame rests on his Commentaries on Aristotle. According to Averroes God, the Prime Mover, is entirely separated from the world, while the celestial spheres are intelligences emanating from God in a descending series until they reach man. He also taught the eternity and potentiality of matter and the unity of the human intellect, i.e. that only one intellect exists for the whole human race, in which every individual participates, to the exclusion of personal immortality.

The theories of Averroes became known in Catholic Europe c.1230, but they were not immediately understood. In 1256 Pope Alexander IV instructed Albert the Great to investigate Averroes's teaching on the unity of the intellect. In Paris Siger of Brabant expounded Averroist theories which were attacked by St Thomas Aquinas, and in 1270 the Bp. of Paris condemned 13 errors arising from Averroist teaching. After 1277 Averroism ceased to be taught in the University of Paris, though it infiltrated again in the 14th cent. and survived in Italy until the Renaissance.