From Athens to Baghdad

(Cross-listed w/CLS 127) Introduction to the elaboration and transmission of key philosophical concepts from classical Antiquity to the Arabic-Islamic tradition and the Latin Middle Ages. Comparative overview of their treatment in these closely interconnected contexts. Rise of translation movements, particularly from Greek into Arabic in 8th- to 10th-century Baghdad, and from Arabic into Latin in 12th-century Andalusia. Examination of how a broad array of topics in metaphysics, natural philosophy, epistemology, psychology, and ethics have been addressed by a number of major authors in the three traditions, with a view to illuminating the main turning points in the transmission and reception of ideas over time.