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Cover image of Reading Ḥayy Ibn-Yaqẓān
Cover image of Reading Ḥayy Ibn-Yaqẓān
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Reading Ḥayy Ibn-Yaqẓān

A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism

Avner Ben-Zaken

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Commonly translated as "The Self-Taught Philosopher" or "The Improvement of Human Reason," Ibn-Tufayl's story Hayy Ibn-Yaqzān inspired debates about autodidacticism in a range of historical fields from classical Islamic philosophy through Renaissance humanism and the European Enlightenment. Avner Ben-Zaken's account of how the text traveled demonstrates the intricate ways in which autodidacticism was contested in and adapted to diverse cultural settings.

In tracing the circulation of the Hayy Ibn-Yaqzān, Ben-Zaken highlights its key place in four far-removed historical moments. He explains how...

Commonly translated as "The Self-Taught Philosopher" or "The Improvement of Human Reason," Ibn-Tufayl's story Hayy Ibn-Yaqzān inspired debates about autodidacticism in a range of historical fields from classical Islamic philosophy through Renaissance humanism and the European Enlightenment. Avner Ben-Zaken's account of how the text traveled demonstrates the intricate ways in which autodidacticism was contested in and adapted to diverse cultural settings.

In tracing the circulation of the Hayy Ibn-Yaqzān, Ben-Zaken highlights its key place in four far-removed historical moments. He explains how autodidacticism intertwined with struggles over mysticism in twelfth-century Marrakesh, controversies about pedagogy in fourteenth-century Barcelona, quarrels concerning astrology in Renaissance Florence, and debates pertaining to experimentalism in seventeenth-century Oxford. In each site and period, Ben-Zaken recaptures the cultural context that stirred scholars to relate to ayy Ibn-Yaqān and demonstrates how the text moved among cultures, leaving in its wake translations, interpretations, and controversies as various as the societies themselves. Pleas for autodidacticism, Ben-Zaken shows, not only echoed within close philosophical discussions; they surfaced in struggles for control between individuals and establishments.

Presented as self-contained histories, these four moments together form a historical collage of autodidacticism across cultures from the late Medieval era to early modern times. The first book-length intellectual history of autodidacticism, this novel, thought-provoking work will interest a wide range of historians, including scholars of the history of science, philosophy, literature, Europe, and the Middle East.

Reviews

Reviews

Ben-Zaken sketches this backdrop to Hayy beautifully.

This engaging book is slight in size yet ambitious in scope and innovative in methodology... overall, this is a splendid and daring book!

This is an impressive interdisciplinary achievement.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
208
ISBN
9780801897399
Illustration Description
30 halftones, 1 line drawing
Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: The Pursuit of the Natural Self
1. Taming the Mystic: Marrakesh, 1160s
2. Climbing the Ladder of Philosophy: Barcelona, 1348
3. Defying Authority, Denying Predestination, and

Preface
Introduction: The Pursuit of the Natural Self
1. Taming the Mystic: Marrakesh, 1160s
2. Climbing the Ladder of Philosophy: Barcelona, 1348
3. Defying Authority, Denying Predestination, and Conquering Nature: Florence, 1493
4. Employing the Self and Experimenting with Nature: Oxford, 1671
Conclusion: Sampling the History of Autodidacticism
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Author Bio
Avner Ben-Zaken
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Avner Ben-Zaken, Ph.D.

Avner Ben-Zaken is the chair of the humanities program at Ono College, Israel. He specializes in the cross-cultural history of science and is the author of Cross-Cultural Scientific Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1560–1660, also published by Johns Hopkins.
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