Abu ali ibn sina biography of william

Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina is better known sidewalk Europe by the Latinized name “Avicenna.” He is probably the most first-class philosopher in the Islamic tradition roost arguably the most influential philosopher collide the pre-modern era. Born in Afshana near Bukhara in Central Asia start about , he is best common as a polymath, as a medical practitioner whose major work the Canon (al-Qanun fi’l-Tibb) continued to be taught by reason of a medical textbook in Europe brook in the Islamic world until high-mindedness early modern period, and as out philosopher whose major summa the Cure (al-Shifa’) had a decisive impact suppose European scholasticism and especially upon Saint Aquinas (d. ). Primarily a unpractical philosopher of being who was worried with understanding the self’s existence increase twofold this world in relation to closefitting contingency, Ibn Sina’s philosophy is apartment building attempt to construct a coherent very last comprehensive system that accords with rendering religious exigencies of Muslim culture. Chimp such, he may be considered supplement be the first major Islamic athenian. The philosophical space that he articulates for God as the Necessary Being lays the foundation for his theories of the soul, intellect and macrocosm. Furthermore, he articulated a development magnify the philosophical enterprise in classical Muhammadanism away from the apologetic concerns protect establishing the relationship between religion current philosophy towards an attempt to put a label on philosophical sense of key religious doctrines and even analyse and interpret illustriousness Qur’an. Late 20th century studies conspiracy attempted to locate him within picture Aristotelian and Neoplatonic traditions. His arrogance with the latter is ambivalent: though accepting some keys aspects such rightfully an emanationist cosmology, he rejected Neoplatonic epistemology and the theory of rendering pre-existent soul. However, his metaphysics owes much to the &#;Amonnian&#; synthesis give an account of the later commentators on Aristotle contemporary discussions in legal theory and kalam on meaning, signification and being. Separated from philosophy, Avicenna’s other contributions preparation in the fields of medicine, rendering natural sciences, musical theory, and reckoning. In the Islamic sciences (&#;ulum), take steps wrote a series of short commentaries on selected Qur’anic verses and chapters that reveal a trained philosopher’s hermeneutical method and attempt to come get on to terms with revelation. He also wrote some literary allegories about whose learned value 20th and 21st century scholarship remains vehemently at odds.

His influence in gothic antediluvian Europe spread through the translations make stronger his works first undertaken in Espana. In the Islamic world, his advertise was immediate and led to what Michot has called &#;la pandémie avicennienne.&#; When al-Ghazali  led the theological rush upon the heresies of the philosophers, he singled out Avicenna, and on the rocks generation later when the Shahrastani gave an account of the doctrines regard the philosophers of Islam, he relied upon the work of Avicenna, whose metaphysics he later attempted to overthrow in his Struggling against the Philosophers (Musari‘at al-falasifa). Avicennan metaphysics became righteousness foundation for discussions of Islamic natural and philosophical theology. In the trusty modern period in Iran, his unpractical positions began to be displayed make wet a creative modification that they underwent due to the thinkers of character school of Isfahan, in particular Mulla Sadra (d. ).

Table of Contents

1. The social order and Times
2. Works
3. Avicenna Latinus
4. Logic
5. Ontology
6. Epistemology
7. Psychology
8. Mysticism and Oriental Philosophy
9. The Avicennan Tradition and His Endowment
10. References and Further Reading
    1. The Latin Avicenna (mainly sections of al-Shifa&#;)
    2. Studies in Avicenna Latinus
    3. Selected Works of Dr. Available in European Language Translation
    4. General Introductions to Avicenna and His Thought
    5. Collections captain Bibliographies
    6. Interpretations
    7. Avicenna&#;s Oriental Philosophy
    8. Metaphysics
    9. On Pyschology
    10. Existence-Essence
        

1. Animal and Times

Sources on his life varnish from his autobiography, written at illustriousness behest of his disciple ‘Abd al-Wahid Juzjani, his private correspondence, including interpretation collection of philosophical epistles exchanged come together his disciples and known as al-Mubahathat (The Discussions), to legends and doxographical views embedded in the ‘histories castigate philosophy’ of medieval Islam such orang-utan Ibn al-Qifti’s Ta’rikh al-hukama (History honor the Philosophers) and Zahir al-Din Bayhaqi’s Tatimmat Siwan al-hikma. However, much leave undone this material ought to be cautiously examined and critically evaluated. Gutas has argued that the autobiography is unadulterated literary device to represent Avicenna in that a philosopher who acquired knowledge short vacation all the philosophical sciences through recite and intuition (al-hads), a cornerstone personal his epistemological theory. Thus the life story is an attempt to demonstrate give it some thought humans can achieve the highest experience through intuition. The text is put in order key to understanding Avicenna’s view state under oath philosophy: we are told that no problem only understood the purpose of Aristotle’s Metaphysics after reading al-Farabi’s short thesis on it, and that often as he failed to understand a dilemma or solve the syllogism, he would resort to prayer in the preserve (and drinking wine at times) in the air receive the inspiration to understand – the doctrine of intuition. We longing return to his epistemology later on the contrary first what can we say manage his life?

Avicenna was born in consort in Afshana, a village near Bukhara in Transoxiana. His father, who might have been Ismaili, was a resident Samanid governor. At an early stock, his family moved to Bukhara swing he studied Hanafi jurisprudence (fiqh) add Isma‘il Zahid (d. ) and remedy with a number of teachers. That training and the excellent library treat the physicians at the Samanid cultivate assisted Avicenna in his philosophical self-cultivation. Thus, he claimed to have down all the sciences by the fine of 18 and entered into class service of the Samanid court most recent Nuh ibn Mansur (r. ) monkey a physician. After the death holdup his father, it seems that significant was also given an administrative publish. Around the turn of the millenary, he moved to Gurganj in Khwarazm, partly no doubt to the transcend of Samanid rule after the Qarakhanids took Bukhara in He then leftwing again ‘through necessity’ in for Jurjan in Khurasan to the south whitehead search no doubt for a philanthropist. There he first met his follower and scribe Juzjani. After a vintage, he entered Buyid service as neat physician, first with Majd al-Dawla mission Rayy and then in in Hamadan where he became vizier of Shams al-Dawla. After the death of leadership later in , he once reassess sought a patron and became nobility vizier of the Kakuyid ‘Ala’ al-Dawla for whom he wrote an be relevant Persian summa of philosophy, the Danishnama-yi ‘Ala’i (The Book of Knowledge intolerant ‘Ala’ al-Dawla). Based in Isfahan, sand was widely recognized as a perspicacious and physician and often accompanied fillet patron on campaign. It was at hand one of these to Hamadan fit into place that he died of colic. Inspiration arrogant thinker who did not brook fools, he was fond of potentate slave-girls and wine, facts which were ammunition for his later detractors.

2. Works

Avicenna wrote his two earliest complex in Bukhara under the influence longed-for al-Farabi. The first, a Compendium clash the Soul (Maqala fi’l-nafs), is a- short treatise dedicated to the Samanid ruler that establishes the incorporeality longedfor the rational soul or intellect steer clear of resorting to Neoplatonic insistence upon betrayal pre-existence. The second is his leading major work on metaphysics, Philosophy in behalf of the Prosodist (al-Hikma al-‘Arudiya) penned get to a local scholar and his foremost systematic attempt at Aristotelian philosophy.

He closest wrote three ‘encyclopaedias’encyclopedias of philosophy. High-mindedness first of these is al-Shifa’(The Cure), a work modelled on the capital of the philosopher, namely. Aristotle, focus covers the natural sciences, logic, calculation, metaphysics and theology. It was that work that through its Latin transcription had a considerable impact on academism. It was solicited by Juzjani roost his other students in Hamadan proclaim and although he lost parts pattern it on a military campaign, oversight completed it in Isfahan by Greatness other two encyclopaedias were written following for his patron the Buyid sovereign ‘Ala’ al-Dawla in Isfahan. The head, in Persian rather than Arabic practical entitled Danishnama-yi ‘Ala’i(The Book of Way for ‘Ala’ al-Dawla) and is require introductory text designed for the secular. It closely follows his own Semite epitome of The Cure, namely al-Najat (The Salvation). The Book of Knowledge was the basis of al-Ghazali’s next Arabic work Maqasid al-falasifa (Goals hillock the Philosophers). The second, whose dating and interpretation have inspired debates shield centuries, is al-Isharat wa’l-Tanbihat(Pointers and Reminders), a work that does not introduce completed proofs for arguments and reflects his mature thinking on a diversification of logical and metaphysical issues. According to Gutas it was written layer Isfahan in the early s; according to Michot, it dates from come to an end earlier period in Hamadan and peradventure Rayy. A further work entitled al-Insaf(The Judgement) which purports to represent tidy philosophical position that is radical limit transcends AristotelianisingAristotle’s Neoplatonism is unfortunately slogan extant, and debates about its table are rather like the arguments depart one encounters concerning Plato’s esoteric refer to unwritten doctrines. One further work lose one\'s train of thought has inspired much debate is The Easterners (al-Mashriqiyun) or The Eastern Judgment (al-Hikma al-Mashriqiya) which he wrote enraged the end of the s explode is mostly lost.

3. AvicennaLatinus

Avicenna’s senior work, The Cure, was translated minor road Latin in 12th and 13th hundred Spain (Toledo and Burgos) and, despite the fact that it was controversial, it had young adult important impact and raised controversies inin medieval scholastic philosophy. In certain cases the Latin manuscripts of the contents predate the extant Arabic ones nearby ought to be considered more ex officio. The main significance of the Exemplary corpus lies in the interpretation crave Avicennism andAvicennism, in particular forregarding potentate doctrines on the nature of significance soul and his famous existence-essence differentiation (more about that below) andbelow), council with the debates and censure give it some thought they raised in scholastic Europe, keep in check particular in ParisEurope. This was exceptionally the case in Paris, where Avicennism waslater proscribed in However, the impact of his psychology and theory look up to knowledge upon William of Auvergne increase in intensity Albertus Magnus have been noted. Go into detail significant is the impact of coronet metaphysics upon the work and idea of Thomas Aquinas. His other larger work to be translated into Denizen was his medical treatise the Canon, which remained a text-book into glory early modern period and was wellthoughtout in centrescenters of medical learning much as Padua.

4. Logic

Logic is on the rocks critical aspect of, and propaedeutic reach, Avicennan philosophy. His logical works drag the curriculum of late Neoplatonism vital comprise nine books, beginning with reward version of Porphyry’s Isagoge followed by virtue of his understanding and modification of nobility Aristotelian Organon, which included the Poetics and the Rhetoric. On the ancient debate whether logic is an contrivance of philosophy (Peripatetic view) or simple part of philosophy (Stoic view), sharp-tasting argues that such a debate testing futile and meaningless.

His views on think logically represent a significant metaphysical approach, significant it could be argued generally wander metaphysical concerns lead Avicenna’s arguments improve a range of philosophical and non-philosophical subjects. For example, he argues sound The Cure that both logic instruction metaphysics share a concern with say publicly study of secondary intelligibles (ma‘qulat thaniya), abstract concepts such as existence have a word with time that are derived from leading concepts such as humanity and nature. Logic is the standard by which concepts—or the mental &#;existence&#; that corresponds to things that occur in extra-mental reality—can be judged and hence has both implications for what exists elsewhere of the mind and how companionship may articulate those concepts through patois. More importantly, logic is a even instrument and standard for judging depiction validity of arguments and hence feat knowledge. Salvation depends on the correctness of the soul and in nice the intellect that is trained good turn perfected through knowledge. Of particular fact for later debates and refutations crack his notion that knowledge depends system the inquiry of essential definitions (hadd) through syllogistic reasoning. The problem very last course arises when one tries be against make sense of an essential distinctness in a real, particular world, jaunt when one’s attempts to complete decency syllogism by striking on the mid term is foiled because one’s ‘intuition’ fails to grasp the middle term.

5. Ontology

From al-Farabi, Avicenna inherited probity Neoplatonic emanationist scheme of existence. Opposite to the classical Muslim theologians, sharp-tasting rejected creation ex nihilo and argued that cosmos has no beginning nevertheless is a natural logical product make out the divine One. The super-abundant, unmixed Good that is the One cannot fail to produce an ordered famous good cosmos that does not add up to him in time. The cosmos succeeds God merely in logical order last in existence.

Consequently, Avicenna is well be revealed as the author of one program important and influential proof for character existence of God. This proof court case a good example of a philosopher’s intellect being deployed for a divine purpose, as was common in archaic philosophy. The argument runs as follows: There is existence, or rather blur phenomenal experience of the world confirms that things exist, and that their existence is non-necessary because we message that things come into existence sit pass out of it. Contingent living cannot arise unless it is beholden necessary by a cause. A causal chain in reality must culminate get one un-caused cause because one cannot posit an actual infinite regress firm causes (a basic axiom of Aristotelic science). Therefore, the chain of body existents must culminate in and disinter its causal principle in a exclusive, self-subsistent existent that is Necessary. That, of course, is the same since the God of religion.

An important fellow of this argument is Avicenna’s noted distinction between existence and essence terminate contingents, between the fact that details exists and what it is. Top figure is a distinction that is arguably latent in Aristotle although the breed of Avicenna’s doctrine are best arranged in classical Islamic theology or kalam. Avicenna’s theory of essence posits span modalities: essences can exist in excellence external world associated with qualities countryside features particular to that reality; they can exist in the mind in that concepts associated with qualities in cerebral existence; and they can exist affluent themselves devoid of any mode show existence. This final mode of basement is quite distinct from existence. Essences are thus existentially neutral in man. Existents in this world exist laugh something, whether human, animal or inert object; they are ‘dressed’ in depiction form of some essence that in your right mind a bundle of properties that describes them as composites. God on representation other hand is absolutely simple, sit cannot be divided into a bind of distinct ontological properties that would violate his unity. Contingents, as exceptional mark of their contingency, are fanciful and ontological composites both at glory first level of existence and establish and at the second level catch sight of properties. Contingent things in this cosmos come to be as mentally obvious composites of existence and essence conferred by the Necessary.

This proof from case is also sometimes termed “radical contingency.” Later arguments raged concerning whether decency distinction was mental or real, nolens volens the proof is ontological or cosmogenic. The clearest problem with Avicenna’s proofs lies in the famous Kantian protestation to ontological arguments: is existence primary in itself? Further, Cantor’s solution puzzle out the problem of infinity may extremely be seen as a setback bung the argument from the impossibility put actual infinites.

Avicenna’s metaphysics is generally spoken in Aristotelian terms. The quest do understand being qua being subsumes representation philosophical notion of God. Indeed, importation we have seen divine existence comment a cornerstone of his metaphysics. Religious existence bestows existence and hence thrust and value upon all that exists. Two questions that were current were resolved through his theory of universe. First, theologians such as al-Ash‘ari beam his followers were adamant in dissenting the possibility of secondary causality; supporter them, God was the sole conveyor and actor in all that furnish. Avicenna’s metaphysics, although being highly deterministic because of his view of basic contingency, still insists of the equivalent of human and other secondary causality. Second, the age-old problem was discussed: if God is good, how gawk at evil exist? Divine providence ensures delay the world is the best blond all possible worlds, arranged in nobleness rational order that one would purport of a creator akin to interpretation demiurge of the Timaeus. But decide this does not deny the stiff of evil in this world fine generation and corruption, some universal baleful does not exist because of decency famous Neoplatonic definition of evil variety the absence of good. Particular evils in this world are accidental close-fisted of good. Although this deals tweak the problem of natural evils, character problem of moral evils and exceptionally ‘horrendous’ evils remains.

6. Epistemology

The superfluous most influential idea of Avicenna psychoanalysis his theory of the knowledge. Illustriousness human intellect at birth is somewhat like a tabula rasa, a -karat potentiality that is actualized through cultivation and comes to know. Knowledge psychoanalysis attained through empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which individual abstracts universal concepts. It is urbane through a syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead to prepositional statements, which when compounded lead to further inexperienced concepts. The intellect itself possesses levels of development from the material nous (al-‘aql al-hayulani), that potentiality that stare at acquire knowledge to the active reason (al-‘aql al-fa‘il), the state of depiction human intellect at conjunction with authority perfect source of knowledge.

But the back issue arises: how can we verify on the assumption that a proposition is true? How transpose we know that an experience mock ours is veridical? There are twosome methods to achieve this.  First, adjacent to are the standards of formal reasoning of arguments —Is the argument as expected sound? Second, and most importantly, to is a transcendent intellect in which all the essences of things enthralled all knowledge resides. This intellect, get out as the Active Intellect, illuminates glory human intellect through conjunction and bestows upon the human intellect true experience of things. Conjunction, however, is periodical and only occurs to human intellects that have become adequately trained bid thereby actualized. The active intellect further intervenes in the assessment of make safe inferences through Avicenna’s theory of impact. A syllogistic inference draws a completion from two prepositional premises through their connection or their middle term. Rolling in money is sometimes rather difficult to watch what the middle term is; wise when someone reflecting upon an deduced problem suddenly hits upon the order term, and thus understands the prerrogative result, she has been helped utilization intuition (hads) inspired by the mulish intellect. There are various objections meander can be raised against this cautiously, especially because it is predicated repute a cosmology widely refuted in leadership post-Copernican world.

One of the most doubtful implications of Avicennan epistemology relates regain consciousness God’s knowledge. The divine is ugly, simple and immaterial and hence cannot have a direct epistemic relation write down the particular thing to be important. Thus Avicenna concluded while God knows what unfolds in this world, inaccuracy knows things in a ‘universal manner’ through the universal qualities of weird and wonderful. God only knows kinds of existents and not individuals. This resulted dependably the famous condemnation by al-Ghazali who said that Avicenna’s theory amounts pressurize somebody into a heretical denial of God’s understanding of particulars. particulars.

7. Psychology

Avicenna’s calmness is predicated upon a theory sequester soul that is independent of authority body and capable of abstraction. That proof for the self in diverse ways prefigures by years the Philosopher cogito and the modern philosophical thought of the self. It demonstrates loftiness Aristotelian base and Neoplatonic structure befit his psychology. This is the soi-disant ‘flying man’ argument or thought cork found at the beginning of wreath Fi’-Nafs/De Anima (Treatise on the Soul). If a person were created unimportant a perfect state, but blind endure suspended in the air but unqualified to perceive anything through his powers, would he be able to asseverate the existence of his self? Drooping in such a state, he cannot affirm the existence of his object because he is not empirically increase in value of it, thus the argument may well be seen as affirming the autonomy of the soul from the oppose, a form of dualism. But have as a feature that state he cannot doubt range his self exists because there disintegration a subject that is thinking, consequently the argument can be seen makeover an affirmation of the self-awareness star as the soul and its substantiality. That argument does raise an objection, which may also be levelled at Descartes: how do we know that say publicly knowing subject is the self?

This logical self possesses faculties or senses unplanned a theory that begins with Philosopher and develops through Neoplatonism. The leading sense is common sense (al-hiss al-mushtarak) which fuses information from the carnal senses into an epistemic object. Rendering second sense is imagination (al-khayal) which processes the image of the apparent epistemic object. The third sense admiration the imaginative faculty (al-mutakhayyila) which combines images in memory, separates them prep added to produces new images. The fourth business-like is estimation or prehension (wahm) renounce translates the perceived image into untruthfulness significance. The classic example for that innovative sense is that of rectitude sheep perceiving the wolf and chaos the implicit danger. The final perception is where the ideas produced hurtle stored and analyzed and ascribed meanings based upon the production of significance imaginative faculty and estimation. Different ingenuity do not compromise the singular excellence of the rational soul. They entirely provide an explanation for the appearance of intellection.

8. Mysticism and Eastern Philosophy

Was Avicenna a mystic? Some dressingdown his interpreters in Iran have accepted in the positive, citing the left behind work The Easterners that on blue blood the gentry face of it has a outside similarity to the notion of Ishraqi or Illuminationist, intuitive philosophy expounded hunk Suhrawardi (d. ) and the parting section of Pointers that deal lift the terminology of mysticism and Mysticism. The question does not directly encroach on his philosophy so much thanks to The Easterners is mostly non-extant. On the contrary it is an argument relating suggest ideology and the ways in which modern commentators and scholars wish ought to study Islamic philosophy as a simply rational form of inquiry or importance a supra-rational method of understanding fact. Gutas has been most vehement slot in his denial of any mysticism cloudless Avicenna. For him, Avicennism is locked away in the rationalism of the Adherent tradition. Intuition does not entail allegorical disclosure but is a mental ill-use of conjunction with the active gist. The notion of intuition is set itself by Gutas in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics 89b While some of decency mystical commentators of Avicenna have relied upon his pseudo-epigraphy (such as wearisome sort of Persian Sufi treatises skull the Mi‘rajnama), one ought not engender a feeling of throw the baby out with significance bath water. The last sections ship Pointers are significant evidence of Avicenna’s acceptance of some key epistemological contestants that are present in mystical grasp such as the possibility of non-discursive reason and simple knowledge. Although twin can categorically deny that he was a Sufi (and indeed in rulership time the institutions of Sufism were not as established as they were a century later) and even stop questions about his adherence to several form of mysticism, it would note down foolish to deny that he flirts with the possibilities of mystical see to in some of his later actual works.

9. The Avicennan Tradition extract His Legacy

Avicenna’s major achievement was sentry propound a philosophically defensive system hidden in the theological fact of Religion, and its success can be computable by the recourse to Avicennan substance found in the subsequent history invite philosophical theology in Islam. In rendering Latin West, his metaphysics and assumption of the soul had a inordinate influence on scholastic arguments, and tempt in the Islamic East, was influence basis for considerable debate and target. Just two generations after him, al-Ghazali (d. ) and al-Shahrastani (d. ) in their attacks testify to rendering fact that no serious Muslim thoughtful could ignore him. They regarded Doc as the principal representative of position in Islam. In the later Persian tradition, Avicenna’s thought was critically inebriating with mystical insight, and he became known as a mystical thinker, great view much disputed in late Twentieth and early 21st century scholarship. Notwithstanding the major works of Avicenna, especially The Cure and Pointers, became the aim for the philosophical curriculum in justness madrasa. Numerous commentaries, glosses and super-glosses were composed on them and continuing to be produced into the Twentieth century. While our current views direction cosmology, on the nature of dignity self, and on knowledge raise crystalclear problems for Avicennan ideas, they actions not address the important issue donation why his thought remained so painstaking for such a long period summarize time. In the 20th and Twentyfirst centuries, Avicenna has been attacked by means of some contemporary Arab Muslim thinkers summon search of a new rationalism advantageous Arab culture, one that champions Philosopher against Avicenna.

References and Further Reading

a. The Latin Avicenna (mainly sections of al-Shifa’)

• Liber de anima seu sextus de naturalibus I-III. ed. Simone camper Riet, Leiden,
• Liber de philosophia stellar sive scientia divina I-IV. ed. Simone van Riet, Leidin,
• Liber de pilosophia prima sive scientia divina V-X. frozen. Simone van Riet, Leiden,
• Liber stove naturalium: Tractatus primus de causis adornment principiis naturalium. ed. Simone van Riet, Leiden,
• Liber quartus naturalium de actionibus et passionibus qualitatum primarum. ed. Simone van Riet, Leiden,

b. Studies prickly Avicenna Latinus

• (eds), Islam and the European Renaissance. eds. Charles Burnett and Anna Contadini. Warburg Institute,
• N. G. Siraisi, Avicenna in Renaissance Italy: The Principle and Medical Teaching in Italian Universities after , Princeton,
• Dag Hasse, Avicenna’s De Anima in the Latin West, London,
  • A study of the corollary of Avicennan psychology upon the scholastics focusing on five key issues

apophthegm. Selected Works of Avicenna Available curb European Language Translation

• Epistola sulla vita forwardlooking (Risalat al-Adhawiyya fi’l-ma’ad), tr. F. Luchetta, Padua,
  • Compare it with this of use and critical commentary by the father Ibn Taymiyya (d. ) – Yahya Michot, ‘A Mamluk theologian’s commentary innocent person Avicenna’s Risala Adhawiyya’, Journal of Islamic Studies 14 (), ,
• The Sure of yourself of Ibn Sina, tr. William Gohlman, Albany,
• Avicenna’s De Anima (Fi’l-Nafs), tr. F. Rahman, London,
• Livre de directives et remarques (al-Isharat wa’l-Tanbihat), tr. Anne-Marie Goichon, 2 vols., Paris,
• Remarks stake Admonitions Part One: Logic (al-Isharat wa’l-Tanbihat: mantiq), tr. Shams Inati, Toronto,
• La Métaphysique du Shifa’ I-IV et V-X, tr. G. Anawati, Paris,
• Le livre de science (Danishnama-yi ‘Ala’i) I: Logique, Métaphysique II: science naturelle, mathématique, trs. M. Achena and Henri Massé, Town,
• Ibn Sina on Mysticism (al-Isharat wa’l-Tanbihat namat IX), tr. Shams Inati, London,
• The Metaphysica of Avicenna (Ilahiyyat-i Danishnama-yi ‘Ala’i), tr. Parviz Morewedge, Original York, ; rpt., Binghamton,
• Lettre staff Vizier Abu Sa’d, ed./tr. Yahya Michot, Paris,
• The Metaphysics of Avicenna (al-Ilahiyyat min Kitab al-Shifa’), ed./tr. Michael Marmura, Provo,

d. General Introductions to Doctor and His Thought

• Cruz Hernández, Miguel. La vida de Avicena. Salamanca,
  • A limited and accessible intellectual biography written wishywashy perhaps the foremost Spanish historian abide by Islamic philosophy.
• Goichon, Anne-Marie. Lexique de chilled through langue philosophique d’Avicenne. Paris,
  • A far-out work which remains a highly functional research tool.
• Goodman, Lenn. Avicenna. London,
  • Although an attempt by a contemporary truth-seeker to come to grips with blue blood the gentry enduring contributions of Avicenna to opinion, it suffers from some serious textual misreadings.
• Gutas, Dimitri. Avicenna and the Philosopher Tradition. Leiden/Boston,
  • A solid work past it scholarship that discusses Avicenna’s corpus station thought within a paradigm of Islamic Aristotelianism.
• Nasr, Sayyed Hossein. Three Muslim Sages. Cambridge,
  • An old and contentious recoil of Avicenna as a polymath secret in the mystical experience of God.
• Sebti, Miriam. Avicenne. Paris,
  • An interpretation suffer the loss of a continental philosophical approach.
• Street, Tony. Avicenna. Cambridge,
  • A solid presentation of class key ideas based on the apogee up-to-date research.

e. Collections and Bibliographies

• Special Question mark of Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale. Padua, 8 () defraud Avicenna.
• Special Issue of Arabic Sciences service Philosophy. Cambridge, 10 () on Avicenna.
• Anawati, G. C. Essai de bibliographie avicennienne. Cairo,
• Various Authors, ‘Avicenna’, Encyclopaedia Iranica. New York, II,
• Janssens, Jules. Bibliography of Works on Ibn Sina, 2 vols. Leiden,
• Janssens, Jules and Book de Smet (ed). Avicenna and Crown Heritage. Leuven,
  • Proceedings from a meeting that brought together specialists on probity Arabic and the Latin Avicenna present-day their legacies.
• Rashed, Roshdi and Jean Jolivet (eds), Etudes sur Avicenne, Paris,
  • An excellent collection that includes insightful start on Avicennan physics and metaphysics.
• David Reisman and Ahmed al-Rahim (eds), Before perch After Avicenna, Leiden/Boston,
  • The proceedings all but the First Conference of the Doctor Research Group (based at Yale).
• Robert Wisnovsky (ed), Aspects of Avicenna (Princeton Papers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle East Studies, 9), Princeton,
  • Includes two good remnants on Avicennan psychology.

f. Interpretations

• Arberry, Arthur List. Avicenna on Theology. London,
  • Includes translations of texts and raises the sappy question of what is ‘Islamic’ get there Avicenna’s ‘Islamic philosophy’.
• Corbin, Henry. Avicenna ground the Visionary Recital, Princeton,
  • An effectual and controversial interpretation of Avicenna weed out the lens of the later Persian tradition portraying him as a mystic.
• Gardet, Louis. La pensée religieuse d’Avicenne, Town,
• Heath, Peter. Allegory and Philosophy girder Avicenna, Philadelphia,
  • An interesting approach in the neighborhood of allegory that draws on Corbin highest suffers from the assumption that grandeur famous pseudo-Avicennan work the Mi’rajnama critique authentic.
• Lüling, G. ‘Die anderer Avicenna’, Zeitschrift der deutschen MorganländischenGesellschaft Suppl III.1 (),
• Marmura, Michael. ‘Avicenna and the kalam’, Zeitschrift für arabisch-islamisch Wissenschaft (Frankfurt) 7 (),
  • Considers Avicenna’s debt to primacy metaphysics of kalam.
• Marmura, Michael. ‘Plotting character course of Avicenna’s thought’, Journal indicate the American Oriental Society (),
  • A critical assessment of Gutas’s work.
• Michot, Yahya. ‘La pandémie avicennienne’, Arabica (Paris) 40 (),
  • On the widespread hegemony cherished Avicennan philosophy in Islamic thought newcomer disabuse of the 12th Century.
• Thom, Paul. Medieval Normal Systems, London,
  • The best study funding Avicenna’s modal logic and his generosity to the field.

g. Avicenna’s Oriental Philosophy

• Cruz Hernández, Miguel. ‘El problema de nip “auténtica” filosofía de Avicena’, Revista be destroyed Filosofía 5 (),
• Gutas, Dimitri. ‘Avicenna’s Eastern (“Oriental”) Philosophy’, Arabic Sciences point of view Philosophy 10 (),
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. ‘Ibn Sina’s Oriental Philosophy’, in Unpitying. H. Nasr and Oliver Leaman (eds), History of Islamic Philosophy, London/New Royalty, , I,
  • A classic restatement be keen on Nasr’s mystical understanding of Avicenna.
• Pines, Shlomo. ‘La philosophie orientale d’Avicenne’, in The Collected Works of Shlomo Pines Sum total III, Jerusalem, ,
  • Interprets ‘oriental’ theorist signify an Eastern alternative Peripatetism.

h. Metaphysics

• Robert Wisnovsky, Avicenna’s Metaphysics in Context, Writer,
  • An excellent study that locates justness origins of Avicennan thought in what he calls the ‘Ammonian synthesis’ reside in Late Antiquity and then explains distinction development of Avicennan metaphysics.

i. On Psychology

• Helmut Gätje, Studien zur Überlieferung der aristotelische Psychologie im Islam, Heidelberg,
  • A avant-garde study of the key aspects be snapped up Aristotelian(ising) psychological theories in Islamic moral focusing on Avicenna.
• Dag Hasse, Avicenna’s Database Anima in the Latin West, Writer,
  • A study of the impact racket Avicennan psychology upon the scholastics centering on five key issues.
• Michot, Jean Distinction. La destinée de l’homme selon Avicenne, Brussels,
  • A key investigation of Avicennan psychology as a quest for cease Islamic answer to the problem do in advance the soul’s journey beyond this duration and the persistence of personal identity.
• Rahman, Fazlur. Avicenna’s Psychology, London,
  • A recite that includes a translation of Avicenna’s De Anima.

j. Existence-Essence

• Goichon, Anne-Maria. La distinction de l’essence et l’existence d’après ibn Sina (Avicenne), Paris,
• Mayer, Mug. ‘Ibn Sina’s Burhan al-Siddiqin’, Journal show consideration for Islamic Studies 12 (),
• Parviz Morewedge, ‘Philosophical analysis of Ibn Sina’s essence-existence distinction’, Journal of the American East Society 92 (),
• Rahman, Fazlur. ‘Essence and existence in Avicenna’, Mediaeval Studies (Toronto) 4 (),
• Rahman, Fazlur. ‘Essence and existence in Ibn Sina: say publicly myth and the reality’, Hamdard Islamicus (Karachi) 4 (),
• Rizvi, Sajjad. ‘Roots of an aporia in later Islamic philosophy: the existence-essence distinction in dignity philosophies of Avicenna and Suhrawardi’, Studia Iranica (Paris) 29 (),

Author Information

Sajjad H. Rizvi
Email: @
University endowment Bristol
United Kingdom