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Document Details : Title: Tracing Causes, Weighing Winds Subtitle: Dialectic, Observation, and Scientific Method from Aristotle's Meteorology through Ibn Bāğğa to Averroes Author(s): LA MARTIRE, Corrado Journal: Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales Volume: 93 Issue: 1 Date: 2026 Pages: 5-38 DOI: 10.2143/RTPM.93.1.3295659 Abstract : This paper examines a methodological principle articulated by Ibn Bāǧǧa in his Commentary on Aristotle’s Meteorology (Šarḥ al-āṯār al-'ulwiyya): natural inquiry must adopt the method (ṭarīq) appropriate to its object. Drawing on Aristotle’s reflections in the Book of Animals (Kitāb al-ḥayawān), Ibn Bāǧǧa does not transfer zoological content to meteorology, but formulates a shared epistemic orientation for empirical sciences marked by causal plurality and non-necessary explanations. The study shows how he extends a classificatory framework from animal science to broader natural philosophy, thereby illuminating methodological tensions in Aristotle’s own Meteorology between dialectical reasoning and empirical observation. It concludes by turning to Averroes (d. 595/1198), whose commentaries systematise this trajectory into a distinct model that combines causal analysis with the epistemic authority of sense perception. |
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