The Long ConversationA timeline of world philosophy

Philosopher

Avicenna

c. 970 – 1037 CE

Also known as Ibn Sina, Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina

Philosopher and physician who built a comprehensive system from Aristotelian and Neoplatonic ideas, known for the distinction between essence and existence.

Engraved silver relief of a bearded man in a turban, in profile
Engraved portrait on a silver vase in the museum at Avicenna’s mausoleum, Hamadan, Iran: a modern, imagined likeness.Photo: Adam Jones · CC BY-SA 2.0 · See the original

Ibn Sīnā, known in Latin as Avicenna, was the most influential philosopher of the Islamic world. He distinguished what a thing is (its essence) from the fact that it exists, and argued that everything whose existence is not part of its essence depends on a Necessary Existent — God. His thought experiment of the “floating man”, who is aware of himself without any sensation, anticipates Descartes.

His medical encyclopaedia, the Canon, was a standard textbook in Europe for centuries.

Key ideas

Essence and existence
What a thing is (its essence, or “quiddity”) is distinct from the fact that it exists. We can grasp what something is without knowing whether it exists at all.
The Necessary Existent
Considered in themselves, things are either merely possible or necessarily existent. Whatever exists necessarily in itself must be uncaused and unique; this is God, the first principle of everything else.
Metaphysics as the first science
Metaphysics is the science of being as being. Fusing Aristotle with the Neoplatonic idea of emanation, Avicenna made it include theology and cosmology and ground all the other sciences.
Rationalist empiricism
The senses are how the soul acquires knowledge, but certainty comes through reasoning. Its key is “hitting upon” the middle term of a syllogism (ḥads), a talent people have in varying degrees.
Region
Persia and Central Asia

Influences

Influenced by

Avicennac. 970 – 1037 CE

Influenced

500 CE – 1400

1400 – 1800

Influenced by

Avicennac. 970 – 1037 CE

Influenced

500 CE – 1400

1400 – 1800

Where these links come from
  • Avicenna drew on Aristotle. Source: Dimitri Gutas, Ibn Sina [Avicenna], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Avicenna drew on Plotinus. Source: Dimitri Gutas, Ibn Sina [Avicenna], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Avicenna drew on al-Farabi. Source: Olga Lizzini, Ibn Sina’s Metaphysics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • al-Ghazali drew on and argued against Avicenna. Source: Frank Griffel, al-Ghazali, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Averroes argued against Avicenna. Source: Fouad Ben Ahmed and Robert Pasnau, Ibn Rushd [Averroes], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Fakhr al-Din al-Razi drew on and argued against Avicenna. Source: Peter Adamson and Fedor Benevich, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Suhrawardi argued against Avicenna. Source: Roxanne Marcotte, Suhrawardi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Ibn Arabi drew on Avicenna. Source: William Chittick, Ibn ‘Arabī, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Bonaventure drew on Avicenna. Source: Tim Noone, R. E. Houser and Joshua Benson, Bonaventure, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Thomas Aquinas drew on Avicenna. Source: Robert Pasnau, Thomas Aquinas, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Ibn Taymiyya drew on and argued against Avicenna. Source: Jon Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Mulla Sadra drew on Avicenna. Source: Sajjad Rizvi, Mulla Sadra, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Key works

  • The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa')
  • The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi al-tibb)

Sources

  1. Dimitri Gutas, Ibn Sina [Avicenna], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. Olga Lizzini, Ibn Sina’s Metaphysics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy