ABSTRACT
One of the joys of studying philosophies from another culture and another age is the discovery of differences that may jar our expectations, as like premises yield rival conclusions and a debate reveals just how often one philosopher’s modus ponens is another’s modus tollens. In the West we often associate empiricism with natural science or with materialism and scientism. Laud’s legacy lived on in the Arabic manuscripts and fonts he had acquired for Oxford. Pococke used them extensively, his publications proving Arabic history and literature worthy of study in their own right, not just in support of biblical learning. His Porta Mosis or Gateway to Maimonides, gave European scholars access to Maimonides’ introductions to his Commentary on the Mishnah. Locke failed to take up Molyneux’s question in 1688, when it was first broached to him, doubtless at that moment preoccupied by more pressing concerns.
