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Concept of Imagination in Aristotle and Avicenna John Peter Portelli Department of Philosophy PDF

107 Pages·2008·6.18 MB·English
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Preview Concept of Imagination in Aristotle and Avicenna John Peter Portelli Department of Philosophy

L , , • ,. . , >• • <, , " ! , Concept of Imagination in Aristotle and Avicenna ~ John Peter Portelli ,·1 , 1'1 Department of Philosophy .. ' .. . , Thesis aubmitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research 1 • ~/ ~n'partial fulfillment of the requir~ments • 1 .' for the de.g ree of Master of Arts h McGill Uni veral ty March, 1979. , ',"l . ...--_-- .\ . 1 , C John Peter Porte11i ," 1979 t• . ./" -- '" ;, , L \' , , /' Abstract ( Until the beginning'ôf the second h!l! of this century historian:~f ;~hilosophy it was the custom of to'emphasize the . importance of Muslim philosophy simply because" Greek' phi19'sophy d±~ec~' Musl~m" was mediated to the west thro\u gh the aid'of the (, philo sophers.' Such an emphasi s, however, ,t-ended t0 di sregard ,î" ~ any original philosophical contribution'on the part of the ,Arabs. ,l' " , And thus, unfQrtunately, the so-called Muslim philo.sophers·were \ merely regarded as commentators,' But i t is not the càse that, P' , .' \ Avicenna, who is best known for his elaborate distinction J between essence and existence -- a distinction barely,st~ted in AristotJ,e but the basis for Aquinàs' ,De Ente et Essentia, , o:t was merely a comrnentator. This distinction i8 U8ually' cited by scholars w~o maintain that Avicenna did not 'just ~ep~oduce , , Aristotelian thought in a Semitic language. . Another int1 eresting• , case, which has not yet been brought ta the surface, is his " \ • concept of imagination. Serious commentators on Av1cenna, such as Prof. F. Rahman, have dealt with this bef,ore, but it c~mcept a has been mistakenly regarded as variation of Aristotle'é 'idea . ....., / . " of imagination. The aim of this thesis is to show~hat in't~is 1 ..-. ~""- / case Avicen,na ,develope<k or perhaps radically al tered Aristôtle', s .. <, ! concept of imagination. 'T,llUS in this thesis l investigate in detail,Aristotle's and Avicenna's,concepts of imagination /l showihg and explaining the development. il also produce .,. - .- of my own to defend such, a position against other ~--' 'ar"g ument~ ' IL, ~ opposed' views, particularly that offered"by Prof. F. Rahman~ who --. ~ 1 ' "" (, ,'maintains that Avicenna's internàl 'senses are ~ariataons of Aristotle's phantasia. . " ... . - j • L l . ., 1 ,, I- t ( Résumé Avant la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle, les hi,storiens de la .Phi1o~oPh~e O?t insisté 'sur l'importance de la pensée , musUlmane seule4ent parce que f'a phi1osophie....grecque a 'étl \ t'ransmis à: l'Occident par l' assis~ance di-recte des philosophes , > ! , ~ musulmans. " Ce fait a miniIÎlisé la contribution originale '., ", ph'i1osophique de la part des Arabes.' Ma1heureùsement cette interprJ,tation relégua les phi1osopl').es musul~;ns au rang des t' " t f - • simples. commentateurs. ~vicenn~, pourtant, est généra1ement~' '. . connu pour ',la dis,tinctiQn qu' il ~ établie entre l'essence et ,', . l' ~x~st,enÇ5e - distinc,tian à peine formu1é~ par Aristot~ m~is \ centrale dans L'Etre et l'Essence de Saint Thomas. qu~ devi~nt 0 C'est .le cas généralement a~firmé par les historieùs de ,la t ",' (~~i~osoPhie qui m§lintiennent qU.'Avicenne n'a pas seu1emen~ " :' r~produi t la pensée d' Aristote en langage sémitique. Un autIre é1ément,int~ressant de la philosophie d"Avice,n ne, qui n'a pas e?core été explofé, est son co~cept d,' imagination. C e ~onc ept' ? / a, été.. signalé ,par d~s \ ?ommentateurs sérieux, tel que le , J/ ' prof~sseur. F. Rahman, mai~, il a été considéré par erreur comme "", o 1 . une variation de l" idée Aristotélici,enne d'imagination. L'objet "\' de cette thèse est de montrer. qu'Avicenne a développé, et , ' ",\ peut-~tre radicalement transformé le conc:pt, d'imagination d "Aristote. Donc, daris cette thèse, j'examine 'en détail le , , ' concept'd'imagination d'Aristote et d'Avicenne; je montre e~ ~ " exp!ique aussi ce développement. Enfin, je présente,mon , ar~ertation pour défen~r7 cette position contre les àutres . ponts de vue opposé, en particulièrement ceux O'fferts par , prof. F. Rahman pour 'q,ui le "sens interne" -d'Avicenne sont de.s ... , () variations de la phantasia d'Aristote. .,' , . .' " " " • 1 1 (:, \... Acknowledg"e' ment .' ,1 /:t A, .:J. l would like to thank Professor A. Trentman, my supervisor, ,apq H. M. Bra:oken for theirl>encouragement ! Pro~.e.s,.s.QI1 . ~ and suggestions. , Moreover, l would a so like to thank : 1 tf II " U Vishwas Govi trikar', Clarence son, Doùglas Dollinger , Il and Laura Brown wi th whom l had variou while discus~.ions 1 • • writing this thesis. Finally, thanks re due to my wife, ft Anna, for qer careful typing and proof-reading of this thesis. 1 1 1 1 \ . \ . \ \ \. \ , f ' \\ , 11 • . , ~ :'rCl --. __' t . " ( .. " .. Contents / Introduction i\ 1 . / Chapter Ohel 1 Aristotle gn Imagination 12 . Cila1p ter'Twol Avicenna on Imaginat~~, 32 Chapter Threel. The InternaI S~nses and Rahman's Thesis ,70 ~ , ] ,.. • Conclusion ,', 92 \ . 1 f , -,t Bt'bliography 99 i f" i ,i è ' // [: , 1\ " '-- ~ f ~I • Î .. 'PP 1 0 L Ji / ". '. ". Introduction It is not a véry easy task to determine with precision when Muslim philosophy as such began. Besides one ,rnight even contest the fact whether Muslim as such existed at p~iloso~hy aIl, sinee the so-called Musllm philasophers spent'quite a /-oeat deal of their time in the Greeks and in tran~lating 1 defendi·ng their fai th. It is known that during M (/\ life and after his death, there were cer renowned (569~632) / Mu~+im thûnkers. But the problem is whether these be, considered philosophers (in the sense of having deve oped systems of philosophy of the~r own), t haye treated with important philosopnical issues. One migh really doubt the philosophical character of the writing of' pu~ely sorne of them, but, - 4 the that sorne ike one;cannot_n~gate f~ct ,,' ) - / al-Farabi or, can considered espec~ally, Avicenn~ b~ "philo sophers Il • Usually, historians of philosop!!y di vide Muslim . ~~st those:i~ philosophers into two groupai those in-the an the west. The most renowned Muslim philosophers in the west\ 'J \ are without doubt Ibn Rushd or Averroes (1126-1198) bom at r! \ , " >' • 1 I? \ Cordova of a family of laWyers and Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) ;' \ born at Tunis of a family whose origin goes back to Seville \ ~, , , k /- (Spain) . The fonher~ defended the Falasi, fa a~J in~ st al-Ghazali .\' v " >, and wrote rimpo rtan~\ commentaries on Aristotle, while Ibn Khaldun t , , was a philosopher of history and in a way might be seen as a r 2 f Karl Marx. ~ -- 4 precursor ; ! f t 1 li J_~ '1 \ L 2 \ , " \ \Î \ 1 . . .... But in this are mostly in the int~oduction'we intereste~ Muslim philosophers who came from the east, mainly_from Turkey, ,/ Persia and Egypt. The' most weIl known are al-Kindi '-.:t;a:n A-rab ',,~-- 'born in the beginning of the 9th' century in the town of KUf.k., Iraq), al-Farabi (a :Turk who died: in 'the year 9.50) 'and Ibn Sina \ : or Avicenna (a Persi~n b~rn in the,sear 980). Of less \ importance, but it ~~ ~ell to menpion him i8 al-Ghazali born 1 in the year 1059 at ~os in Khorsar . . The importance of Muslim philosophy arises from the fact \ that Greek P\itosOPhY was mediatedito the west, particularly ~entr~s learni~g WhiC~ to the of in Scholasticism flourished' <, " . in the 12th and l)th centurie.s, through the direct aid of t,he Muslim philosophers. And a knowledge of Muslim philosophy ~~ .-' is essential for a fully historîbal co~pr.ehe nsion of Medieval / ph:i:'losophy in Europ'e. -,~ ~ ':-;:~ There werè two main'Latin of the Greek translâ~ions classics: (i) The first was that translate~ from the A~abic translation tc;)"". ! iJ,• • of the Greek texts. Here we diséetn the mediation of the Muslim philosophers, who among o,ther scholars were in the . worki~g , l , variou's centres of intellectual acti vi ty, which shifted from one pl,a~ of learning ta ?-nother,. : \ \ (ii) The second was that translated directl~ from the Greek f , texts. But this was.only done during the time of Aquinas, who ,\ might be said to have discovered the real Aristotle. For quite a long time, the Western M dieval philosophers were only touc~~dJ:'àtorted in wri 'ngs of Plato-and Aristotle. . f- l / '~ ,. j, ~ 1 \ \ l L L / / ',J J ( While translating the original texts the MusIim~philosophers had made various commentaries.' These cornmentaries, in which one can notice l'f,eo-Platànic and Islamic, tendencies, were also studied 'by the phil,osophers and at times they were Medi~l considered to be part of the real Greek texts. On the other hand, the by the Islamic developmen~ philosophers of Greek thought, which was also received by ~ sho~ing th~ s~~' Scholastic s, helped'- in (i) importanc e of Ari s' • contribution to philosophy, although their interpretations . wer~ 'influenc~d by Plato's thQUght, (ii) providing a purely philosophical schema on the part of certain Muslim philosophers ( . 'Avicenna) . Such philosophical contained important' schemes'~ purely philosophical developments of the Greeks' thought and \:~ which were later on re-developed by the Scholastics. A clear example is found in Aquinas and Avicenna. The latter developed~ the d~stinction between essfnce ~nd existence barely stated in Aristotle, and Aquinas on Avicenna's development. ~la~orated .. ,.1)1. One of the major difficulties with which the Scholastics .' o were faced was the reconciliation of philosophy with theology, particularly Christian Theology. And this attempted reconciliation brought about various polemics. Such a difficulty - ~as not a totally'new one in the history of philosopny as a , similar problem had already been encountered by the MuSlim ., \ philosophers, who arnong other things had engaged themselves in '.Y j~5 '. reconciling the G~eek P~i~osoPhers with the tenets, of the Koran~ è Such a problem, was not an' leasy one to solve as the basis of the Greco-Roman and Islamic cultures were not similar. The idea of l 1.( , ;, ~ ~ , l .' L 4· J - ,,' a Religion had never been consîdered very ( Pr~phetic seriou~ly by the Greek philosophers, while the .whqle mode of the Islamic life was based upon such a religionl Eventually there arase tw<? main schools which 'deal t wi th - this prbblem, namely, the Kalam rand the. Falg§ifa. These two _/ 'schools agreed on certain point~, but their differences leid . to a serious disputation', As a resul t of this we find various attacking each other, The main attack on the part philosopher~ " '- of the Kalam scheel was launched by al-Ghazali whese major. work The Destruction -of -th-e Philosophers, was a criticism' of --; Avicenna, the major exponent of the Falasifa, On thè other han~, in his work e~ti tled Destruction of the Destruction of the l Philosophers Ibn Rushd defended Ibn Sina. The word "kalam" is usually translated by ttle word "theology", though this is not the exact word. 'rhe meaning i t , ~ eventually acquired is "controversy, discussio~', or conversation ... J The .name f the first school mentioned deri ved 0 i ts name from this Arabie word "kalam" whose literaI meaning . is "ward" (the word of God). . The thinkers,inc1uded in the Kalam school' employed philosophy only as an aid in reaching their goal, namely,. .... firmly , - to establish the religious beliefs of the Koran. Philosophy is only a tool or instrument,but not the end. Thus al-Farabi • ri himself, who is as one of,the Falasjfa, in the conslder~d Ihsa al- ulum, regards the ilm ·al-kalam as "a science wh-ich 1 1 1 ( enables a map to produee the victory of the dogmas and actions ! , laid down by the Legislator of the religion «M~àIDmed», and ( , ( 5 to refute aIl opinions contrad~cting them. ,,4 Ibn Khaldun and Muhammed 'Abduh elaborate on this, but nothing new is added. ( - The p'roponents of this school were the first Muslims to assimilate Greek philosophy. Such an assimilation began to take place thé flourishing of the second centre, Darnascus. duri~g The developmen~ of Mus• lim thouod ght and phîlosophy are character(' ised by the vaFious shifts of the intellectual centres from city to city,! The lirst centre w,as Muhammed s city Medina. q 1 This in~ellectual centre flour,ished in the 7th century just 1 i after the reath of the Prophet. But no philasophical ac~ivity ! as took"place here. suc~ 1 /DamaSCLj-s',was the second centre during the Umayyad Dynasty if t (8t~ Land 9th centur.ies)". 'rhe Kalam schOGll owes its beginning' to thi~ cerltre wheré phllosophy was only conceived as an,aid to theology. Reason was together wi th medi taition and us~d '0 • > reflection only to eluci~ate and defend the tenets of the Koran. It was during'this period that tne Kalam school ôrganised Î itself. They had mentality of apologists of Islam who t~e sought the aid of philosophy ta establish' the reasonableness of b.elieving in the Koran. And i t was this character of n <, discursive and reasoned apal.ogià, which was-.to attr.act the attac1cs d ; bath of the traditionalists 'and of the'Falasifa. \ . , They, however, developed their own charâcteristic . ( - , \\ , philosophy -- Atomistic Occasionalism, which is presented in a , ~ .. way ~hat suggests that it was deduced from the Koran. The " • i world is pictured as a disconti:puous structure of{ Accidents if '\ (atoms) which are constantly recreated by the extrinsic décrees ( ;

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ward "imagination," but from what he wrote in the De Anima a.nd o the ~. Somniis (Aristotle' s De Anima and the Commentary of St. Th. Aguinas, p. 383). -. -- -- 12 Walzer ~., Greek in!2 Arabie, Essays Qn Islamic fhilosophy, p.
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