Interpreting Avicenna: Science And Philosophy In Medieval Islam-Proceedings Of The Second Conference Of The Avicenna Study Group (Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science)

280 Pages·2004·1.22 MB·English

by  David C. Reisman

INTERPRETING AVICENNA: SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM
ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
THEOLOGY AND SCIENCE
Texts and Studies
EDITED BY
H. DAIBER and D. PINGREE
VOLUME LVI
INTERPRETING AVICENNA:
SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY
IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM
Proceedings of the Second Conference of the
Avicenna Study Group
EDITED BY
JON McGINNIS
with the assistance of
DAVID C. REISMAN
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2004
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Avicenna Study Group. Conference (2nd : 2002 : Mainz, Germany)
Interpreting Avicenna : science and philosophy in medieval Islam / edited by Jon
McGinnis with the assistance of David C. Reisman.
p. cm. — (Islamic philosophy, theology, and science, ISSN 0169-8729 ; v. 56)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-13960-5
1. Avicenna, 980-1037—Congresses. 2. Philosophy, Islamic—Congresses. 3. Philosophy,
Medieval—Congresses. 4. Islam and science—History—Congresses. I. Title. II. Series.
B751.Z7A925 2004
181’.5—dc22
2004050584
ISSN 0169-8729
ISBN 90 04 13960 5
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CONTENTS
Note on the Transliteration of Arabic and Persian ................ vii
Introduction ................................................................................ ix
METHODOLOGY
Chapter One The Pseudo-Avicennan Corpus, I:
Methodological Considerations .............................................. 3
David C. Reisman (University of Illinois, Chicago)
AVICENNA ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
AND THE EXACT SCIENCES
Chapter Two Ibn Sìnà on Chance in the Physics of
a“-”ifà" .................................................................................... 25
Catarina Belo (University of Oxford)
Chapter Three On the Moment of Substantial Change:
A Vexed Question in the History of Ideas ........................ 42
Jon McGinnis (University of Missouri, St. Louis)
Chapter Four Intellect, Soul and Body in Ibn Sìnà:
Systematic Synthesis and Development of the Aristotelian,
Neoplatonic and Galenic Theories ...................................... 62
Robert E. Hall (Queen’s University, Belfast)
Chapter Five Non-Discursive Thought in Avicenna’s
Commentary on the Theology of Aristotle .............................. 87
Peter Adamson (King’s College, London)
Chapter Six The Conception of the Angle in the Works
of Ibn Sìnà and a“-”ìràzì .................................................... 112
Irina Luther (Russian Academy of Sciences)
vi contents
AVICENNA ON THEOLOGY AND METAPHYSICS
Chapter Seven Avicenna’s Argument for the Existence of
God: Was He Really Influenced by the Mutakallimùn? ...... 129
Ömer Mahir Alper (Istanbul University)
Chapter Eight Reconsidering Avicenna’s Position on God’s
Knowledge of Particulars ...................................................... 142
Rahim Acar (Marmara University)
Chapter Nine The Reception of Book B (Beta) of
Aristotle’s Metaphysics in the Ilàhìyàt of Avicenna’s
Kitàb a“-”ifà" ............................................................................ 157
Amos Bertolacci (Yale University)
Chapter Ten The Relation Between Form and Matter:
Some Brief Observations on the ‘Homology Argument’
(Ilàhìyàt, II.4) and the Deduction of Fluxus .......................... 175
Olga Lizzini (Università di Roma—“La Sapienza,” Italy)
THE HERITAGE OF AVICENNA
Chapter Eleven The Three Properties of Prophethood in
Certain Works of Avicenna and al-˝azàlì .......................... 189
M. Afifi al-Akiti (University of Oxford)
Chapter Twelve Resurrection (Ma'àd) in the Persian Óayàt
an-Nufùs of Ismà'ìl Ibn Mu˙ammad Rìzì: The Avicennan
Background ............................................................................ 213
Roxanne D. Marcotte (The University of Queensland)
Bibliography ................................................................................ 237
Index .......................................................................................... 253
Index of Names ...................................................................... 253
Index of Arabic Words .......................................................... 257
NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION OF
ARABIC AND PERSIAN
The transliteration follows the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische
Gesellschaft for both Arabic and Persian, with the exception of aw and
ay for dipthongs instead of au and ai, and á instead of à for the alif
maqßùra. The Persian -h (representing the tà" marbù†a) is retained, and
the Persian i∂àfah is represented as -i or -yi.

INTRODUCTION
The papers gathered in this volume represent in part the proceed-
ings of The Second Annual Avicenna Study Group Symposium held
during the First World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (University
of Mainz, 12–13 September 2002). The Avicenna Study Group was
formed in March 2001 at the end of The First Graduate Student
Conference on Ibn Sìnà (Yale University). The purpose of The
Avicenna Study Group is to facilitate communication concerning
recent academic research on the life, times and thought of Avicenna
through annual meetings, to disseminate information on manuscripts,
primary and secondary material related to Avicenna and medieval
Arabic philosophy in general, and to serve as the first stage in pro-
jected major collaborative research projects on Avicenna. The pre-
sent volume represents the second collective activity of The Avicenna
Study Group.
Considered as a whole, the papers included in the present vol-
ume represent the major trends and concerns of current scholarship
on the life, thought and works of Avicenna, arguably the most impor-
tant and influential philosopher during the medieval period in the
East and West. The contributions of these scholars are divided here
topically into four sections: (I) Methodology, (II) Avicenna on Natural
Philosophy and the Exact Sciences, (III) Avicenna on Theology and
Metaphysics and (IV) the Heritage of Avicenna.
Perhaps the single most important desideratum for future progress
in Avicenna studies is the establishment of a corpus of “authentic”
Avicennan texts or, conversely, identifying Pseudo-Avicenna works.
Yet despite the recent advances in the textual and philological method-
ologies introduced into Avicenna studies, little attention has been
paid to establishing such a corpus. The section “Methodology” con-
sists of David C. Reisman’s paper “The Pseudo-Avicennan Corpus,
I: Methodological Considerations.” Although in this paper Reisman
does not hazard a list of Pseudo-Avicenna works, he does provide
a prolegomenon to such future research by suggesting needed prin-
ciples and methodologies appropriate to such a study. In this respect,
he treats various terminological issues and defines different genre cat-
egories of the Pseudo-Avicenna corpus, as well as suggesting principles
x introduction
to be used in identifying misattribution. Concerning this latter point,
the evidence for misattribution will be either external or internal, as
one might expect. Reisman goes on though, and delineates different
types of both evidence and carefully examines under what conditions
such evidence should or should not count against the authenticity of
a text. Reisman’s overarching principle is one of caution in identi-
fying a work as part of the Pseudo-Avicenna corpus. Still, as Reisman
remarks “caution is never to be confused with indecision.” Scholars
will find Reisman’s study invaluable for studying the numerous treatises
ascribed to Avicenna and helping to establish their true authenticity.
The section “Avicenna on Natural Philosophy and the Exact
Sciences” contains five papers that address different aspects of
Avicenna’s philosophy of nature, or physics, psychology (theory of
the soul) and mathematics. These contributions provide careful stud-
ies of various issues in Avicenna’s natural philosophy and mathe-
matics. Moreover, they point out the influence of the classical heritage
on Avicenna’s thought as well as Avicenna’s own substantive modifica-
tions of Greek thinkers, whether of Aristotle in physics, Galen in
medicine, Plotinus in psychology, or Euclid in mathematics. What
becomes clear is that though Avicenna was strongly affected and
deeply concerned with many of the same problems as his Greek
forerunners, he was also a thoroughly independent and original
thinker. The study of the relationship between Avicenna and the
classical heritage is only now beginning to receive the attention it
deserves, and so the observations offered in these five papers will
undoubtedly open up new vistas for future Avicennan scholarship.
Catarina Belo’s “Ibn Sìnà on Chance in the Physics of a“-”ifà"”
explores the similarities and differences between Aristotle’s and
Avicenna’s accounts of “chance” and “fortune.” The issue is important
since at its core is the more pressing philosophical issue of deter-
minism. More markedly than Aristotle, argues Belo, Avicenna main-
tains that for every occurrence there is a necessary, essential cause,
and consequently chance plays no part in the occurrence of events
or the coming to be of things. Indeed, chance is not an independ-
ent, or even partial, cause of anything; rather, chance is only an
accidental cause, namely, an end that is the culmination of a nexus
of essential causes, and yet an end that was not expected. Given
Avicenna’s deterministic universe the problem of the relation between
God and evil arises, a problem to which Belo turns at the end of
her paper. Avicenna’s theodicy is essentially Neoplatonic in that