If we were to summarize the history of philosophy in a single academic phrase, we would say it is the history of the encounter between reason and existence, or rather, the encounter between two minds: a mind that courses through existence and a mind that reads it. One mind ensures the order and substance of things, while the other charges names with significations and forges essences into concepts and terms. However, in its attempt to approach the existent, reason may unintentionally turn into its adversary, trying to subject it to its own conditions. Thus, the act of approaching transforms into an act of subjugation. This subjugation of the existent to the requirements of reason, and the tension that arises from it, is nothing less than the actual history of philosophy. Hence, the history of philosophy has been the history of packaging the existent into abstract concepts—a history of reason's distancing from the tangible existent, or, in Heidegger's words, a history of the forgetting of Being. Yet, the history of philosophy is also, at the same time, the history of the overwhelming desire to comprehend the existent and master it, a history of resisting the forgetting of Being and fearing the loss of its meaning. For whenever philosophy is alive in a cultural entity, it is evidence of the presence of Being within it, whereas neglecting philosophy and discarding its sayings is a sign of the loss of Being. This book offers a reading of the ancient Arab philosophical text in its textuality—that is, as a linguistic creation of names—and a reading of its philosophy—that is, as a semantic creation of concepts and statements in their relationship to existents. This is achieved by tracing the origin of names and statements and their transformation from one meaning to another, from one position to another. Therefore, the research contained in this book, 'Transformations in the History of Existence and Reason,' is a new attempt to approach the texts of ancient philosophers in their nominal, semantic, and discursive particularities. The goal is to show how our ancestors viewed reason in its relationship with the existent.

• Author: Mohamed Mesbahi
• Publisher: Dar Al-Gharb Al-Islami - Beirut
• Year of Publication: 1995
• Pages: 364
• Parts: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• Paper Type: White
• Printing Colors: Single Color