Abstract
Is there a philosophy of mathematics in classical Islam? If so, what are the conditions and the scope of its presence? To answer these questions, hitherto left unnoticed, it is not sufficient to present the philosophical views on mathematics, but one should examine the interactions between mathematics and theoretical philosophy. These interactions are numerous, and mainly foundational. Mathematics has provided to theoretical philosophy some of its central themes, methods of exposition and techniques of argumentation. The aim of this chapter is to study some of these interactions, in an effort to give some answers to the questions raised above. The themes which will be successively discussed are mathematics as a model for the philosophical activity (al-Kindī, Maimonides), mathematics in the philosophical syntheses (Ibn Sīnā, Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī), and finally the constitution of ars analytica (Thābit ibn Qurra, Ibn Sinān, al-Sijzī, Ibn al-Haytham).
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Rashed, R. (2008). The Philosophy of Mathematics. In: Rahman, S., Street, T., Tahiri, H. (eds) The Unity of Science in the Arabic Tradition. Logic, Epistemology, and The Unity of Science, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8405-8_6
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