Avicenna’s View on the Greek Philosophical Thought

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Specialized PhD of Islamic Philosophy; Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Continuing the path of Neo-Platonic philosophers and Farabi, while accepting the framework of the Greek thought in reaching the truth of the beings in the universe through the rational knowledge in the framework of Aristotelian logics, Avicenna has attempted to present a certain interpretation of some fundamental concepts of the Greek thought and offer a metaphysics with quite rational and argumentative results as well as a rational interpretation for some of the principal concepts of the Quranic thought in the Islamic world, a metaphysics that can be called the essential Greek-Islamic rational system. The present article attempts to use an analytical-explanatory method to prove that, firstly, Avicenna accepts the Greek rational thinking method in reaching the truth of the beings, calling it the certitude wisdom and knowledge. And – in line with Aristotle – he introduces the man’s sensory faculty as the starting point for the path of acquiring certitude knowledge, through which he reaches the rational knowledge of the beings. Secondly, it states the most important axes of Avicenna’s philosophy in his legal reasoning reading of principles of Aristotelian thought.

Keywords

References

  1. Avicenna, Sh. (1379 SH). Al-Nijāt min al-Gharq fil-Baḥr al-Dalālāt (intro and ed. Danesh-pazhuh, M. T. 2nd). Tehran: Publications of Tehran University.
  2. Avicenna, Sh. (1404 AHa). Al-Ta‘līqāt (ed. Badavi, ‘). Beirut: al-A‘lam al-Islamiyya Library.
  3. Avicenna, Sh. (1404 AHb). Al-Shifā (al-Ilāhiyāt) (ed. Zaʾid, S.). Qom: Ayatollah Mar‘ashi Library.
  4. Avicenna, Sh. (1404 AHc). Al-Shifā (al-Ṭabī‘iyāt) (ed. Zaʾid, S.). Qom: Ayatollah Mar‘ashi Library.
  5. Avicenna, Sh. (1404 AHd). Al-Shifā (al-Manṭiq), 1 and 3 (ed. Zaʾid, S.). Qom: Ayatollah Mar‘ashi Library.
  6. Avicenna, Sh. (1980). ‘Uyūn al-Ḥikma (intro and ed. Badvi, ‘ 2nd ed.). Beirut: Dar al-Qalam.
  7. Avicenna, Sh. (1363 SH). Al-Mabdaʾ wal-Ma‘ād (ed. Nourani, ‘ 1st ed.). Tehran: Institute of Islamic Studies.
  8. Avicenna, Sh. (1375 SH). Sharḥ al-Ishārāt wal-Tanbīhāt Ma‘a-l Muḥkamāt (1st). Qom: al-Balagha Publications.
  9. Avicenna, Sh. (1383 SH). Dānishnāma ‘Alāʾī (Ilāhiyāt) (ed. Mu‘een, M. 2nd). Hamadan: Bou Ali Sina University.
  10. Ihterami, R. and Pazouki, Sh. (1400 SH). “Sarshishmihāyi Baḥth Wujūd wa Māhiyat wa Tamāyuz Mitāfīzīkī Ānhā dar Kitāb al-Ḥurūf Fārābī” in Ḥikmat Sīnavī, 25 (66), pp. 99-124 (Doi:10.30497/ap. 2021.241686.1551, 25(66), 99-124).
  11. Ihterami, R. (1401 AH.). “Tafsīr Ibn Rushd az ‘Aqlāniyat Arasṭūʾī wa Nisbat Ān bā Dīn” in Naqd wa Naẓar, 27 (106), pp. 196-223 (doi: 10.22081/jpt.2022.63550.1931, 27(106), 196-223)
  12. Suhravardi, Sh. I. (1375 SH). Majmū‘a Muṣannafāt (vol. 2, ed. Henry, C., Nasr, S. H. and Habibi, N. 2nd). Tehran: Institute of Cultural Studies and Researches.
  13. Tusi, Kh. N. (1375 SH). Sharḥ al-Ishārāt wal-Tanbīhāt Ma‘a-l Muūḥkamāt (1st). Qom: Balagha Publications.
  14. Farabi, A. (1986). Kitāb al-Ḥurūf (intro., ed. and anno. Mahdi, M.). Beirut: Dar al-Mashriq.
  15. Aristotle. (1956). Analytica posteriora; id, Analytica priora. Ross, W, D, Aristotle, London.
  16. (1991). The Complete Works of Aristotle: Categories, Generation and Corruption and Metaphysics, the Revised Oxford Translation, Edited By Jonathan Barnes. Princeton: University Press.
  17. Gilson, Etienne. (1952). Being and Som Philosophers, 2nd Toronto, Canada: Poutifical Institute of Mediaeval.

 

 

Theosophia Islamica
Volume 2, Issue 1 - Serial Number 3
January 2022
Pages 36-67

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics