Avicenna

Question 1

Dates

Answer 1

980–1037

Question 2

Correcting Aristotle

Answer 2

Saw himself as completing and correcting Aristotle, not merely transmitting him

Claimed Aristotle’s Metaphysics was only fully understood after reading it 40 times and then with al-Fārābī’s help

Question 3

Aristotle’s proof of the First Mover

Answer 3

Believed that Aristotle failed, especially in book Lambda, as he is trying to prove something in metaphysics using a physical premise

Using movement – a lower philosophical science – to prove the existence of a higher philosophical science

Question 4

Proof for God

Answer 4

Avicenna’s own proof for the Necessary Existent hinges on the contingency of all things: only a being whose essence is to exist can explain why anything exists at all

Question 5

Hads

Answer 5

Avicenna develops a doctrine of intuition (ḥads), a kind of intellectual illumination that allows the soul – particularly the prophetic soul – to grasp universal truths instantly

Ḥads is particularly important in prophecy, where the prophet’s soul receives truths from the Active Intellect in an immediate and imaginative form

Question 6

Immortality

Answer 6

Avicenna critiques Aristotle’s denial of personal immortality, insisting that individual souls survive death

Each individual human soul is immaterial, indivisible, and thus not dependent on the body

Question 7

Ismailism

Answer 7

Shi’a Fatimids in Egypt who were sending secret propagandists to convert Samanids (Sunni, like Avicenna) to Ismaili Islam

Ismailism is a sect of Sh’ia Islam that follows Imam Ismail ibn Jafar as the rightful successor to Imam Jafar al-Sadiq

His brother and father converted

Question 8

What text illuminates Aristotle?

Answer 8

Farabi’s On the Purpose of Metaphysics

Question 9

‘Literalists’

Answer 9

Often refers to the ‘literalists’ meaning Syriac Christians who did most of the translations in the Translation Movement

They often rendered the Greek texts word-for-word rather than conveying the intended meanings or concepts in the target language

Question 10

Hads vs syllogism

Answer 10

Avicenna held that al-ḥads was a higher faculty than syllogistic reasoning, enabling certain exceptional individuals (especially prophets) to access truths directly

Prophets, for Ibn Sīnā, possess a perfected imaginative faculty that allows them to receive universal truths via intuition, bypassing step-by-step rational inference

Intuition (ḥads) and demonstration (burhān) are both valid paths to truth, but ḥads is quicker and more direct, though far rarer

Question 11

Necessary existence (3)

Answer 11

Avicenna distinguishes between contingent beings (which require causes) and a Necessary Being, which exists by nature

The Necessary Existent is the ultimate cause of all other existents and cannot not exist

This argument departs from Aristotelian metaphysics by positing necessity of existence rather than motion

Question 12

Aquinas

Answer 12

Richard Frank and Ayman Shihadeh highlight Avicenna’s necessity’s influence on later Islamic and Christian metaphysics, including Aquinas’ concept of necessary being

Argument from motion - Aristotle
Argument from necessity - Avicenna

Question 13

Faculties of the soul (3)

Answer 13

Avicenna divides the soul into three faculties: vegetative (growth), animal (sensation, movement), and rational (intellect)

He believes the rational soul is immaterial, unique to humans, and capable of abstract thought

The soul originates from the Active Intellect and returns to it through intellectual perfection

Question 14

Aristotle’s De Anima

Answer 14

Avicenna accepts his tripartite soul but argues that the rational soul is not dependent on the body for its existence or function (is immortal)

Question 15

Deborah Black

Answer 15

Self-awareness precedes sensory experience, suggesting an immaterial aspect to individual identity

Question 16

Other accounts of the soul

Answer 16

Avicenna argues against materialist and atomist accounts of soul, prominent in other Islamic schools; Some Muʿtazilīs (especially early ones) held a more physical or atomist account of the soul, seeing the soul as a subtle body or accident attached to atoms

Plato’s chariot (reason, emotive, appetitive)

Question 17

Reason and revelation

Answer 17

Not contradictory but complementary

Revelation conveys truth to the masses allegorically; reason uncovers it philosophically

Question 18

Prophets

Answer 18

Prophets, in his view, are those whose intellects and imaginations are exceptionally developed

Question 19

Dimitri Gutas - R&R

Answer 19

Highlights Avicenna’s effort to reconcile Greek philosophical traditions with Islamic teachings, fostering a unified intellectual framework

Question 20

Moses Maimonides

Answer 20

Heavily inspired by Avicenna

Revelation may use metaphor or symbol, so it needs philosophical interpretation

Question 21

Abstraction

Answer 21

Knowledge arises from abstraction: the intellect strips forms from sensory input

Human intellect gains knowledge by separating (or abstracting) universal forms from particular sensory experiences

Question 22

Types of knowledge

Answer 22

He distinguishes between empirical, rational, and intuitive knowledge

Question 23

Universals

Answer 23

Avicenna held that only universals are truly knowable; knowledge of particulars is contingent on their relation to universals

Question 24

God and particulars

Answer 24

God knows particulars ‘in a universal way,’ preserving divine omniscience without contradicting Aristotelian principles

Particulars are changeable, contingent, and cannot be grasped with certainty

Question 25

Types of knowledge (u vs p)

Answer 25

He distinguished between demonstrative knowledge (‘ilm) and awareness (ma’rifa), reserving true knowledge for universals

Question 26

Peter Adamson

Answer 26

Highlights Avicenna’s reliance on Aristotelian ideas from the Posterior Analytics to argue for universal knowledge as epistemologically superior

Question 27

Creation

Answer 27

Rejects direct creation ex nihilo; instead, the cosmos emanates hierarchically from the Necessary Existent The First Intellect emanates from God, and successively lower intellects proceed from there

Question 28

Ethics

Answer 28

Ethics is teleological: it aims at the perfection of the rational soul and alignment with the intelligible world

Question 29

Virtue

Answer 29

Virtue consists in moderating passions through reason and habituating moral conduct

Question 30

Avicenna's view of Philosophy

Answer 30

Avicenna believed the entire philosophical tradition was Aristotelian due to the limited availability of Platonic and alternative sources

Question 31

Why was he engaging with Aristotle?

Answer 31

His engagement with Aristotle was seen as engagement with philosophy itself; other schools were largely unknown or filtered through Aristotelian lenses

Question 32

Neoplatonists

Answer 32

He considered even Neoplatonist figures like Plotinus and Proclus as commentators on Aristotle, integrating their work into his Aristotelian framework Assumes coherence especially as Plotinus' Ennead is paraphrased into The Theology of Aristotle and falsy attributed to him

Question 33

Dimitri Gutas - central figure

Answer 33

Avicenna’s dominance in Arab philosophy turned him into the central figure of Peripateticism (Aristotelianism) in the Islamic world

Question 34

Amos Bertolacci

Answer 34

Avicenna’s philosophical system is deeply Aristotelian in structure (systemic and encyclopaedic) and language but reinterpreted through critical reading and adaptation

Question 35

The Avicennan Pandemic, Michot 1993 (4)

Answer 35

Late 1000s everyone was obsessed with Avicenna Avicenna was not on the curriculum in the Madrasas but everyone was reading him Notably read by al-Ghazali From the 1200s on the madrasas system is very heavily influenced by Avicenna’s insights