2 - Ibn Bajja: An Independent Reader of theRepublic

Summary

Averroes (1126–98) wrote a commentary, or be’ur in the only extantHebrew translation, on Plato's Republic that is the subject matter ofthe present anthology. He insists there that his aimis to present Plato's doctrines without provokingpolemics and that the dialectical arguments are notnecessary to the understanding of thosedoctrines.

Just as he did in his epitome of, or short commentaryon, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Averroes neither followsthe strict order of the Greek original nor preservesthe original division of books. While he gives hisreasons for the rearrangement in the case of theMetaphysics, he doesnot give any for the Republic. Although Averroes's workfollows Plato's text in many passages, theindependent structure of the work fits better intoan epitome than into a middle commentary. As for theArabic translation he was reading, we know that itpreserved the division into ten books but probablynot the dialogue form, since Averroes never mentionsthe names of the figures participating in thedialogue. In the Republic, Socrates narrates in the firstperson, but in his commentary, Averroes give no hintof Socrates's peculiar role in that work; on thecontrary, he presents Socrates only once, referringto him in the third person and mentioning that heheld the belief that death is preferable to lifewithout human dignity.

Averroes lived two generations after Muḥammad ibnal-Ṣā̔igh Ibn Bājja (d. 1139; henceforth Ibn Bajja),who did not write a specific commentary on theRepublic. But he didcompose a treatise, titled the Governance of the Solitary, in which hedeals with some of the political issues raised byPlato. There, as in some other works that we willdiscuss below, Ibn Bajja refers to the Republic and to the Phaedo. In this chapter theattempt will be made to reconstruct the influence ofPlato's Republic onIbn Bajja through his own texts, and incidentally,to learn about the text that Ibn Bajja wasusing.

Greek Philosophy in Arabic

Scholars have displayed a lively interest in thereception of Greek philosophy by the Arabs for manyyears, and a few studies of that reception inconnection with Plato should be mentioned.