---
title: "2 Greek Philosophical Quotes By Dimitri Gutas"
description: "2 Greek Philosophical quotes by Dimitri Gutas. Plus more from Dimitri Gutas and more Greek Philosophical sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4bc/dimitri-gutas-30388_business_the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-ent_270059.jpg"
---

> [ “, the core of \[Al-Kindi's\] philosophical enterprise was centered in the geometrical approach to the solution of all problems associated with metaphysics and cosmology. This focus explains the fragmentary nature of the translations from Proclus and Plotinus that he commissioned,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-enterprise-was-centered-in-the/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4bc/dimitri-gutas-30388_business_the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-ent_270059.jpg)

> [“In Greek, the most significant area to which these curricula were reduced was the rudiments of Aristotelian logic. It is possible, for instance, to discern a major structural change in the medical curriculum in Alexandria toward the end of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/in-greek-the-most-significant-area-to-which-these-curricula-were/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/dimitri-gutas-30388_books_in-greek-the-most-significant-area-to-wh_994779.jpg)

## More by Dimitri Gutas

> [“Al-Kind¯ı’s work revived philosophy as living practice and introduced it in the new social environment of Abbasid Baghdad by making it relevant to its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/al-kind-s-work-revived-philosophy-as-living-practice-and-introduced/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [ “Certainly the most significant of \[the political, social and ideological currents playing a role in the development of philosophical texts in Arabic\] was the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/certainly-the-most-significant-of-the-political-social-and/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [ “, the core of \[Al-Kindi's\] philosophical enterprise was centered in the geometrical approach to the solution of all problems associated with metaphysics and cosmology.… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-enterprise-was-centered-in-the/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“Two great contemporary scholars at the antipodes of the cultural spread of Hellenism, Boethius in Rome (d. 525) and Sergius of Re¯ˇsayna in northern…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/two-great-contemporary-scholars-at-the-antipodes-of-the-cultural/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“This translation movement, during the course of which almost all non-literary and non-historical secular Greek works on science and philosophy were translated upon demand…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/this-translation-movement-during-the-course-of-which-almost-all-non/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“If living philosophy was dead in Greek and had, furthermore, failed to be transplanted and to acquire an independent status in other languages, what…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/if-living-philosophy-was-dead-in-greek-and-had-furthermore-failed-to/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“In Greek, the most significant area to which these curricula were reduced was the rudiments of Aristotelian logic. It is possible, for instance, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/in-greek-the-most-significant-area-to-which-these-curricula-were/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“In ways that have not yet been properly understood, philosophy had a second beginning in Abbasid society by the end of the ninth century…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/in-ways-that-have-not-yet-been-properly-understood-philosophy-had-a/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“Intellectual life in the caliphal court just before and after the Abbasid revolution (750), during which time Ibn al-Muqaffa was active, revolved around questions…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/intellectual-life-in-the-caliphal-court-just-before-and-after-the/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“Even after the Hellenistic empire of Alexander’s successors was supplanted by that of the Latin-speaking Romans, the usual linguistic development – the language of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/even-after-the-hellenistic-empire-of-alexander-s-successors-was/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“The beginnings of Arabic philosophical literature can be described as taking place in two stages. The first occurs from roughly the middle of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/the-beginnings-of-arabic-philosophical-literature-can-be-described-as/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“To be sure, there were attempts at translating the philosophy that was written in Greek into other languages – the presumed intention being to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/to-be-sure-there-were-attempts-at-translating-the-philosophy-that-was/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“Another aspect of theological discussions that played a role in philosophical arguments is apologetics – that is, Muslim disputations with non-Muslims, a practice directly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/another-aspect-of-theological-discussions-that-played-a-role-in/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [“Al-Kind¯ı (ca. 800 – ca. 870), the first to develop philosophical thought as such in Arabic, was a polymath in the translated sciences and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/al-kind-ca-800-ca-870-the-first-to-develop-philosophical-thought-as/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

> [ “One may guess that the commissioning of this work \[a logical textbook and translation into Arabic of Aristotle and Porphyry\] must have come from… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/one-may-guess-that-the-commissioning-of-this-work-a-logical-textbook/)

[Dimitri Gutas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dimitri-gutas/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/dimitri-gutas/#itemlist",
            "name": "2 Greek Philosophical Quotes By Dimitri Gutas",
            "numberOfItems": 2,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“, the core of [Al-Kindi's] philosophical enterprise was centered in the geometrical approach to the solution of all problems associated with metaphysics and cosmology. This focus explains the fragmentary nature of the translations from Proclus and Plotinus that he commissioned, just as it explains his philosophical eclecticism: he was interested primarily in the question of the One or God as the first principle and in all the issues – methodological, metaphysical, cosmological – related to that concept; he was, accordingly, fashioning his own approach from the disjecta membra of Greek philosophy available in the written (but not living) tradition. This is why his philosophical thinking does not belong to a school tradition, why it does not rest on preexisting translations of Greek philosophical works, and why it is an original creation, in Arabic, of the intellectualism of early Abbasid society.41”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Dimitri Gutas"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-enterprise-was-centered-in-the/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4bc/dimitri-gutas-30388_business_the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-ent_270059.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4bc/dimitri-gutas-30388_business_the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-ent_270059.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4bc/dimitri-gutas-30388_business_the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-ent_270059.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“, the core of [Al-Kindi's] philosophical enterprise was centered in the geometrical approach to the solution…” — Dimitri Gutas",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“In Greek, the most significant area to which these curricula were reduced was the rudiments of Aristotelian logic. It is possible, for instance, to discern a major structural change in the medical curriculum in Alexandria toward the end of the sixth century, perhaps as a reaction to the decline of philosophical instruction in that last remaining center of Greek philosophical studies. ...The theological applications of philosophy in Greek patristic literature, by contrast, were many and longevous, though clearly harnessed to their theological, apologetic, and polemical goals rather than free philosophical discourse. In Syriac Christianity, as in Greek, there is a similar development of a logical curriculum, except that it was rather shorter: The Sasanian rulers actively endorsed a translation culture that viewed the transferral of Greek texts and ideas into Middle Persian as the “restitution” of an Iranian heritage that was allegedly pilfered by the Greeks after the campaigns of Alexander the Great.17 It was this cultural context, and the atmosphere of open debate fostered most energetically by Chosroes I Anushirwan (ruled 531–78), that must have prompted the Greek philosophers to seek refuge in his court after Justinian’s 529 edict prohibited them from teaching.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Dimitri Gutas"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dimitri-gutas/in-greek-the-most-significant-area-to-which-these-curricula-were/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/dimitri-gutas-30388_books_in-greek-the-most-significant-area-to-wh_994779.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/dimitri-gutas-30388_books_in-greek-the-most-significant-area-to-wh_994779.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ebe/dimitri-gutas-30388_books_in-greek-the-most-significant-area-to-wh_994779.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“In Greek, the most significant area to which these curricula were reduced was the rudiments of Aristotelian…” — Dimitri Gutas",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/dimitri-gutas/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/dimitri-gutas/",
            "name": "Greek Philosophical Quotes by Dimitri Gutas",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/dimitri-gutas/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4bc/dimitri-gutas-30388_business_the-core-of-al-kindi-s-philosophical-ent_270059.jpg"
            },
            "description": "2 Greek Philosophical quotes by Dimitri Gutas. Plus more from Dimitri Gutas and more Greek Philosophical sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/dimitri-gutas/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/dimitri-gutas/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Greek Philosophical",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Dimitri Gutas",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greek-philosophical/dimitri-gutas/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```