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Life

Portrait of Ibn Rushd
Ibn Rushd

1126 CE – 1198 CE

IslamicPeripatetic

Born Cordoba

The great commentator on Aristotle. He argued that philosophy and religion are two paths to the same truth, and neither should silence the other.

Portrait of Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas

1225 CE – 1274 CE

MedievalScholastic

He reconciled Aristotle with Christianity and wrote the most systematic theology ever attempted. Then he stopped, saying all he had written was straw.

Connection

Ibn Rushd the commentator Thomas Aquinas — Aquinas called Ibn Rushd 'The Commentator' and engaged deeply with his Aristotle commentaries throughout the Summa.

Shared Ideas

Faith & Reason

Ideas

Faith & ReasonThe IntellectReason
Faith & ReasonNatural LawBeing

Words

“Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence.”

— Ibn Rushd

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

— Thomas Aquinas

“The things that we love tell us what we are.”

— Thomas Aquinas

Key Moments

1126 CE

Born in Cordoba

c. 1169 CE

Commissioned to Comment on Aristotle

c. 1180 CE

The Incoherence of the Incoherence

1195 CE

Exile and Restoration

1245 CE

Studies in Paris and Cologne

1265 CE

Writes the Summa Theologica

December 1273 CE

The Mystical Experience

1274 CE

Dies on the Road

Works

The Incoherence of the Incoherence

Summa Theologica

Atlas of Thinkers

A story-first philosophy atlas. Explore history's greatest thinkers through place, time, movement, and ideas.

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Volume I · Ancient Greece · 624-262 BCE