A certain sect of Arabic philosophers, Ar-Razi included, held that time and space were absolutes, but this was widely critiqued as absurd. Such ideas were more widespread in Christendom where Neoplatonism held sway.
I'm beginning to love Arabic philosophers. And I'm sure philosophy and science lost a lot when European scientists ran pell mell from the Middle Ages. It took until 1900 to loosen the grip of absolute time and space in physics. You have to love people who were suspicious of absolute time and space, by dint of nothing but reason.
On the other hand, Ar-Razi discovered measles and used rubbing alcohol as a disinfectant. And discovered kerosene. He died in 925. Can you believe? It puts Europe to shame.
1 comment:
Don't forget that we got much of our foundational mathematics from the Arabs (algebra & algorithms are Arabic words). Without that math, no scientific revolution. And no tables of logarithms. Without those tables it would have been much harder to send ships around the world as those tables were needed for calculating locations and bearings.
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