Western Culture Global Presents The Top 100 Heroes of Western Culture These individuals have most contributed to replacing ignorance with knowledge, savagery with civilization, disease with health, tyranny with liberty, poverty with abundance, and despair with happiness. #11: Averroes / Ibn Rushd (1126 - 1198) Ibn Rushd or Averroes (1126-1198) was an Arab scholar whose translations of and commentaries on Aristotle’s works helped to reintroduce the philosopher’s ideas to Europe after at least an 800-year absence. In medieval Europe, at the University of Paris, a group of philosophers came to identify themselves with the Aristotelian philosophy presented by Averroes. Later known as " Averroism," this school of philosophy had strong influence on medieval philosophers, namely Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas's substantially secular ideas would break the church’s hold on Europe and form much of the intellectual foundation of the coming Renaissance. Without the contributions of Averroes, the ideas of Aristotle may today be virtually unknown in the entire world. And since Aristotle is in many ways the father of Western culture, the absence of his ideas means the absence of advanced civilization or even civilization itself. Go to #12: Louis Pasteur Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — Home Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Numerical Order Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Century Top 100 Western Culture Heroes — by Category
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