Averroes on the Relation among Reason and Religion

Prof. Dr. Dr. Matthias Lutz-Bachmann

Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, born in 1952, is Professor of Philosophy, member of the Board of Directors of the Cluster of Excellence 243 and Vice President of the Goethe University Frankfurt. Within the Cluster, he is the director of the research group on the philosophy of law of the ‘Salamanca School’ and plays a leading role in the task force on the development of the theory of ‘post-secularism’. His main research interests are mediaeval philosophy, political philosophy, critical theory and the philosophy of religion.
He studied Philosophy, Catholic Theology, Political Science and History in Frankfurt, Münster and the Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology, Sankt Georgen. He received his Ph.D. in 1981 (Dr. Phil.) and in 1984 (Dr. theol.). 1987 he habilitated at the Westfälische Wilhemls-Universität Münster.

Selected publications

Geschichte und Subjekt. Zum Begriff der Geschichtsphilosophie bei Immanuel Kant und Karl Marx (1981), Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg/München 1988, Band 27 der Reihe: Praktische Philosophie (Dissertation thesis).

(et al. Ed.) Handlung und Wissenschaft. Die Epistemologie der praktischen Wissenschaften im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert. Action and Science. The Epistemology of the Practical Sciences in the 13th and 14th Centuries (2008).

(et al. Ed.) Lex und Ius in der Politischen Philosophie und Rechtstheorie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (2009), Stuttgart.

(et al. Ed.) Krieg und Frieden im Prozess der Globalisierung (2009), Weilerswist.

Averroes on the Relation among Reason and Religion

Ibn-Rushd (or in the Latin version Averroes) was one of the most discussed Arabic authors in the world of the Latin speaking universities of the 13th century like the University of Paris. In my paper I will refer to the famous application of the Aristotelic epistemology to the questions of “reason” and “faith” as well as to the problem how to deal with religious belief in the realm of public intellectual discussions by Ibn-Rushd and its impact on the debate in the faculties of the University of Paris of the 13th century. In doing so I will discuss the positions of Siger of Brabant as well as of Thomas Aquinas.