Ibn Rushd defended philosophical demonstration and produced influential commentaries on Aristotle while arguing for a principled relation between inquiry and revelation.
Intellectual setting
In Almohad Iberia and North Africa, Ibn Rushd held legal and medical offices while intervening in arguments about Aristotelian philosophy, theology, and public religious life.
Key ideas
Demonstration and law
Those capable of demonstration may interpret scripture in ways appropriate to its truth, without making philosophy a rival revelation.
Aristotelian commentary
Careful commentary can recover the arguments of a text while making them available for current scientific and theological disputes.
Legacy
His commentaries shaped Latin scholasticism and Jewish philosophy as well as later debates within Islamic philosophy, and his response to al-Ghazālī became emblematic of philosophical rebuttal.