The absolute large or absolute small cannot be entirely one, however, because they are not infinite. This means that they do not exist as one throughout time. The absolute large or absolute small could, in theory, change size over time, and the definition of the absolute large or absolute small could be altered. This line asserts that at any given point in time, the absolute large must be clearly defined, because if it is not, then no limit could exist and then nothing could exist. Because of this contradiction, we understand that the Absolutes are always defined absolutely, but the question remains, how do we understand these limits? Al-Kindi now seemingly gets sidetracked and begins speaking about the mechanics of doubling. By Al-Kindi's definition when something is doubled, it becomes twice what it was before, and the original number which was doubled now becomes a part of the fully doubled number. The same is true for halving, wherein the original number is reduced by half, in other words, the entity that was doubled or halved does not change, it simply transforms. This is a concept that does not naturally occur in the physical world, at least not in the way that Al-Kindi presents it. For example, if you had 2 asteroids floating in space, they could not instantaneously turn into 4, but, if a certain plant has one stalk at a point in time, it could potentially grow another, effectively doubling the number of stalks that the plant has. Therefore, this doubling cannot happen instantaneously in the physical world, as this kind of doubling is one that can only happen metaphorically. This concept is still considered by Al-Kindi however, because, as we know from earlier in this passage, Al-Kindi is concerned with both the literal and the metaphorical. This is because both the real and imaginary make up our experience as humans.

This means that there could be no infinity in terms of size, at least according to Al-Kindi. The idea behind this is that if everything only exists relative to something else, then there must bee absolutes within the universe because everything cannot sit relative to itself, if we want to define the limits of the universe and attain complete knowledge, then we have to be able to understand it, and therefore there must be concrete limits through which we can understand our existence. This discussion of absolutes also brings to light how unity can exist in ways other than what is truly one. The absolute large and absolute small can be examples of what is only metaphorically one, because they are not the true one, this much is apparent but they make up the limits of our existence and because of this, they could be understood as being a part of the true one and therefore, metaphorically one to some capacity.

Al-Kindi next goes into a discussion of size. Important to understand in this discussion is the definition of Predicate, which in this context, is to "found or base something on". So this discussion is about what large and small, long and short are predicted of or defined by.What Al-Kindi explains is that the large can only exist relative to how the small exists. The same can be said for the long and short, or plenty and few because with no solid frame of reference within the universe, then how can we understand scale at all except through relativity.

In Al-Kindi's Metaphysics, Al-Kindi explores the laws of this universe. Al-Kindi believes that these Metaphysics are a means of attaining the knowledge of God. For this reason, there is not much distinction made between theology and philosophy as they both aim to achieve the knowledge of the true one. This knowledge is understood as the same because a key principle of God is absolute oneness, so this knowledge as well, must be one, therefore all pursuit of knowledge leads to one truth. Al-Kindi begins this section by talking about this oneness, but instead, how it can be divided between the true one which is only one in metaphor. It is important to look at why Al-kindi may be asking this question of oneness, because if God is one, and always has been, and always will be, then what would be the need for a metaphorical one, and could something that is only one metaphorically even be one at all?

Al-Kindi now seemingly gets sidetracked and begins speaking about the mechanics of doubling. By Al-Kindi's definition when something is doubled, it becomes twice what it was before, and the original number which was doubled now becomes a part of the fully doubled number. This is a concept that does not naturally occur in the physical world, at least not n the way that Al-Kindi presents it. For example, if you had 2 asteroids floating in space, they could not instantaneously turn into 4, but, if a certain plant has one stalk at a point in time, it could potentially grow another, effectively doubling the number of stalks that the plant has. Therefore, this doubling cannot happen instantaneously, as this kind of doubling is one that can only happen metaphorically. This concept is still considered by Al-Kindi however, because, as we know from earlier in this passage, Al-Kindi is concerned with both the literal and the metaphorical. This is because both the real and imaginary make up our experience as humans, and thus complete knowledge must pertain to the material and immaterial.

Because of this notion of doubling, Al-Kindi comes to the conclusion that the Absolutes cannot sit as definite points. This calls into question some of Al-Kindi's methods in this particular section. Because Al-Kindi is determined to find the absolute large of both the real and imaginary, he runs into this contradiction. Some people may argue that the Physical and Imaginary worlds are separated, and do not necessarily have to follow the same rules or be contained within the same limits. It is interesting to wonder if this discourse could end differently if the idea of doubling was not introduced. This contradiction does seem necessary to make, however, because, as we know knowledge must be one because God is unity, and therefore the rules that pertain to the physical and imaginary must also be one.

In Al-Kindi's Metaphysics, Al-Kindi explores the laws of this universe. Al-Kindi believes that these Metaphysics are a means of attaining the knowledge of God. For this reason, there is not much distinction made between theology and philosophy as they both aim to achieve the knowledge of the true one. This knowledge is understood as the same because a key principle of God is absolute oneness, so this knowledge as well, must be one, therefore all pursuit of knowledge leads to one truth. Al-Kindi begins this section by talking about this oneness, but instead, how it can be divided between the true one which is only one in metaphor. It is important to look at why Al-kindi may be asking this question of oneness, because if God is one, and always has been, and always will be, then what would be the need for a metaphorical one, and could something that is only one metaphorically even be one at all?

Instead of stepping back and looking again at how he arrived at this contradiction, Al-Kindi concludes that there is no way the absolute large can be explicitly defined. The same can be said for all aforementioned measurements, including thee small long and short. Instead, these limits can be understood as sitting relatively larger than what is known to be the largest. Al-Kindi does not explain how much larger the absolute large is to what we know or how much smaller the absolute small is, but this conclusion brings up another concept which is that the absolute large and absolute small sit completely outside of our frame of reference. If we understand them this way, then there would be no way of ever defining these terms, as they would always be something larger than what we could imagine or perceive. This brings into question again whether the Absolute large is fixed or not. For example, if it were possible for an object to increase its own size exponentially, would it ever reach the absolute large? would it be hindered by the position of the absolute large? or would the absolute large continue growing exponentially with this object so that the absolute could remain larger by a certain amount? And on the other hand, will wee as humans ever bee able to discover the smallest particle in existence? or will it always sit smaller than what we can perceive with new technologies? In other words is are the absolute limits our existence actively engaging with changes in the universe, or with changes in what is understood by the beings inside of it? and if God is eternal, then what does that mean for the absolutes? do they exist eternally with God, in different capacities, or does the notion that the absolutes are not Infinite mean that they will someday end, just as they were created with the universe.

This passage interests me very much because it leaves so many questions unanswered. After this section Al-Kindi goes on to speak about the one and how it exists numerically and does not look any further into this idea of absolutes. This passage is also impressive because it explores the same ideas of relativity that scholars like Einstein looked at many centuries later. The notion that we have no real idea of the size of anything, and only understand things relative to other things really puts into perspective how little we know about the universe we live in. This must have been revolutionary in the 9th century, and it was work like this that was important for paving the way for other scholars such as Ibn Sina and Al-Farabi.

In conclusion, I think that more exploration of these ideas would have been very interesting, but it is easy to understand why Al-Kindi didn't dwell on this subject for too long. While the discussion was interesting while it lasted, th absolute large, small, long and short are definitely not the main focus of this discussion, and the ideas are so difficult to grasp that it quickly becomes apparent how difficult it is to understand what these sizes would be, with very little knowledge of our own size, and no points of reference.

The absolute large or absolute small cannot be entirely one, however, because they are not infinite. This means that they do not exist as one throughout time. The absolute large or absolute small could, in theory, change size over time, and the definition of the absolute large or absolute small could be altered. This line asserts that at any given point in time, the absolute large must be clearly defined, because if it is not, then no limit could exist and then nothing could exist. Because of this contradiction, we understand that the Absolutes are always defined absolutely, but the question remains, how do we understand these limits? Al-Kindi now seemingly gets sidetracked and begins speaking about the mechanics of doubling. By Al-Kindi's definition when something is doubled, it becomes twice what it was before, and the original number which was doubled now becomes a part of the fully doubled number. The same is true for halving, wherein the original number is reduced by half, in other words, the entity that was doubled or halved does not change, it simply transforms. This is a concept that does not naturally occur in the physical world, at least not in the way that Al-Kindi presents it. For example, if you had 2 asteroids floating in space, they could not instantaneously turn into 4, but, if a certain plant has one stalk at a point in time, it could potentially grow another, effectively doubling the number of stalks that the plant has. Therefore, this doubling cannot happen instantaneously in the physical world, as this kind of doubling is one that can only happen metaphorically. This concept is still considered by Al-Kindi however, because, as we know from earlier in this passage, Al-Kindi is concerned with both the literal and the metaphorical. This is because both the real and imaginary make up our experience as humans.

Al-Kindi now seemingly gets sidetracked and begins speaking about the mechanics of doubling. By Al-Kindi's definition when something is doubled, it becomes twice what it was before, and the original number which was doubled now becomes a part of the fully doubled number. This is a concept that does not naturally occur in the physical world, at least not n the way that Al-Kindi presents it. For example, if you had 2 asteroids floating in space, they could not instantaneously turn into 4, but, if a certain plant has one stalk at a point in time, it could potentially grow another, effectively doubling the number of stalks that the plant has. Therefore, this doubling cannot happen instantaneously, as this kind of doubling is one that can only happen metaphorically. This concept is still considered by Al-Kindi however, because, as we know from earlier in this passage, Al-Kindi is concerned with both the literal and the metaphorical. This is because both the real and imaginary make up our experience as humans, and thus complete knowledge must pertain to the material and immaterial.

Because of this notion of doubling, Al-Kindi comes to the conclusion that the Absolutes cannot sit as definite points. This calls into question some of Al-Kindi's methods in this particular section. Because Al-Kindi is determined to find the absolute large of both the real and imaginary, he runs into this contradiction. Some people may argue that the Physical and Imaginary worlds are separated, and do not necessarily have to follow the same rules or be contained within the same limits. It is interesting to wonder if this discourse could end differently if the idea of doubling was not introduced. This contradiction does seem necessary to make, however, because, as we know knowledge must be one because God is unity, and therefore the rules that pertain to the physical and imaginary must also be one.

Al-Kindi next goes into a discussion of size. Important to understand in this discussion is the definition of Predicate, which in this context, is to "found or base something on". So this discussion is about what large and small, long and short are predicted of or defined by.What Al-Kindi explains is that the large can only exist relative to how the small exists. The same can be said for the long and short, or plenty and few because with no solid frame of reference within the universe, then how can we understand scale at all except through relativity.

This means that there could be no infinity in terms of size, at least according to Al-Kindi. The idea behind this is that if everything only exists relative to something else, then there must bee absolutes within the universe because everything cannot sit relative to itself, if we want to define the limits of the universe and attain complete knowledge, then we have to be able to understand it, and therefore there must be concrete limits through which we can understand our existence. This discussion of absolutes also brings to light how unity can exist in ways other than what is truly one. The absolute large and absolute small can be examples of what is only metaphorically one, because they are not the true one, this much is apparent but they make up the limits of our existence and because of this, they could be understood as being a part of the true one and therefore, metaphorically one to some capacity.

we don't know very much about al farabi, his ethnicity or faith

collaboration between faiths indicates acceptance and faith in the oneness of god