Being and Essence in the Middle Ages

We've been reading and discussing the concepts of Being and Essence in the Middle Ages, starting with Aristotle and then with Islamic Scholars of the golden age, including Ibn Sina (Avicenna). So I think it's time to mix all these characters together in a play of our own.

Sarah Bakewell did a wonderful little work called "The Existential Cafe", in which various Existential philosophers are imagined to be coming and going to a cafe in 1940's Paris. I'm going to borrow her clever idea and amend it by going back to 10th-13th century Baghdad at the House of Wisdom. Like Sarah's work, the characters will be presenting and arguing their philosophies, and especially their views on Being and Essence.

Who, you may well ask, will be the main characters in this play of ours? I'm thinking of the following: Aristotle (of course) Boethius, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Al-Haytham, and Thomas Aquinas. Each one of these philosophers, to me, is wrestling with the same question: How can one best apply the wisdom of Aristotle to their own contemporary world, especially with respect to Being and Essence.

It's no surprise that the development by these philosophers of these two concepts throughout the Middle Ages had such an profound impact on philosophy, even up to the 20th century Existentialist philosophers Heidegger and Sartre.

So if you are interested in learning about the development of these key concepts of Being and Essence throughout the Middle Ages, please join us for a very amateur production of our own play. Note, there is no audience per se, because you will be performing all the parts. It's a lot of fun.

Aristotle's Metaphysics (pdf)
Aristotle's Metaphysics (YouTube lecture)
Boethius's Theological Tractates
Ibn Sina The Metaphysics of the Healing
Ibn Sina An English Version of the Liber de Anima
Al-Ghazali Deliverance from Error
Al-Ghazali The Incoherence of the Philosophers
Ibn Rushd The Incoherence of the Incoherence
Thomas Aquinas On Being and Essence
The Optics of Ibn Al-Haytham