Avicenna’s Philosophy (Course Syllabus)

Description

Studying Avicenna’s philosophy is important and beneficial for different reasons. First, because of the role he had in the Islamic Philosophy, as consolidating its past and directing its future – similar to the role of Islamic philosophy itself; mediation between ancient Greek and the Enlightened Europe. Second, for his position in the Islamic Golden Age, not just as a philosopher, but also as a predominant scientist whose influential thoughts and works continued to shape and affect various philosophical systems and scientific disciplines for centuries, and beyond borders. And third, for the way he encountered, and answers he provided to profound philosophical questions. Different attitudes toward and newer readings of ancient philosophical heritage can bring into light potential solutions to our modern problems. This course aims at providing students with a general outlook on Avicenna’s philosophy. After a brief introduction to Islamic philosophy, its origin and historical significance, lectures will focus on the systematic philosophy of Avicenna and treat each subject by illustrating its historical background, Avicenna’s debt to his processors and then the developments and contributions he made in that particular area. In each discussion, after addressing the influences he had on later philosophers, the relevance of their critical method and philosophical insights to contemporary questions and problems are discussed.

Aim

To familiarize students with the general themes and systematic philosophy of Avicenna

Objectives

Students are supposed to gain basic information about and acquaintance with:

• Avicenna’s life and works
• Avicenna’s classification of science and systematic philosophy
• People, works, and theories influencing and influenced by Avicenna
• His innovative contributions to philosophy
• His role in the reconciliation between faith and reason or science and theology in the Islamic World

Course Content

1. Introduction
   1. Hikma and Philosophy in the Muslim World
   2. Avicenna and the Peripatetic School in the Islamic Philosophy
   3. Avicenna’s life and works
2. Backgrounds
   1. Greek Origins
   2. Influence of other non-Islamic traditions
   3. Avicenna’s Muslim Predecessors
   4. Avicenna’s socio-political context
3. Avicenna’s Classification of Sciences
4. Metaphysics
   1. Its subject
   2. Its goal and benefit
   3. Its methodology
5. Ontology
   1. Existence and Quiddity
   2. Hierarchy and gradation of Existence
   3. Distinction between Contingent being and Necessary being
   4. Causality (the core of causality; the Principle of al-Wahid)
6. Epistemology
   1. Knowledge by presence and acquired knowledge
   2. Mental and External Existence
   3. Unity of the Knower and the Known
   4. Sense, imagination and reason
   5. Conception and assertion
   6. Self-evident, axiomatic propositions
   7. Problem of the Universals
7. Logic
   1. Definition and Demonstration
   2. Categories
   3. The five modes of argument
8. Theology (Prime Philosophy)
   1. The Argument of Contingency and Necessity (Siddiqin)
   2. Divine Knowledge
   3. Divine Benevolence and the Problem of Evil
   4. The everlasting creation (not ex nihilo)
   5. Angels and Divine Revelation
   6. Prophethood
   7. The Hereafter
9. Philosophical Psychology
   1. Human Soul (the floating man and other arguments)
   2. Man’s natural faculties
   3. The Intellect
10. Mysticism
    1. Interpretation and allegory
    2. wayfaring as a method for philosophy
11. Natural philosophy, Cosmology, biology etc.
12. Avicenna’s late, unfinished project: The Eastern Philosophy?

Course Assignment

Papers, class presentations or mid-term quizzes (depending on regulations or other conditions)

Course Methodology

Lectures, Presentations and Tutorials

Course Sources

Adamson, P. (2005). The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Adamson, P. (2013). Interpreting Avicenna_ Critical Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Avicenna. (1971). Treatise on Logic. (F. Zabeeh, Trans.) Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Avicenna. (2009). The Physics of the Healing. (J. McGinnis, Trans.) Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press.

Avicenna. (2014). Remarks and Admonitions, Physics & Metaphysics. (S. Inati, Trans.) New York: Columbia University Press.

Bertolacci, A. (2006). The Reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics in Avicenna's Kitab al-Sifa. Leiden: Brill.

Gohlman, W. E. (1974). life of Ibn Sina_ a critical edition and annotated translation. New York: SUNY Press.

Goodman, L. (1992). Avicenna. London: Routledge.

Gutas, D. (2014). Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. Leiden: Brill.

Gutas, D. (n.d.). Ibn Sina [Avicenna]. (E. N. Zalta, Editor) Retrieved from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition): https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/ibn-sina/

Hassa, D. N. (2012). The Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Reception of Avicenna's Metaphysics. Berlin: Gruyter.

Heath, P. (1992). Allegory and Philosophy in Avicenna (Ibn Sina). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Janssens, J. L. (1991). An Annotated Bibliography on Ibn Sina. Leuven: Leuven University Press.

Lagerlund, H. (2011). Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Heidelberg: Springer.

Langermann, Y. T. (2009). Avicenna and His Legacy. Turnhout: Brepols.

Leaman, O. (2005). Avicenna. In D. M. Borchert, Encyclopedia of Philosophy (pp. 432-436). New York: Thomson Gale.

McGinnis, J. (2010). Avicenna (Great Medieval Thinkers). New York: Oxford University Press.

Nasr, S. H. (1976). Three Muslim Sages_ Avicenna-Suhrawardi-Ibn Arabi. New York: Caravan Books.

Reisman, D. C. (2002). The Making of the Avicennan Tradition. Leiden: Brill.

Reisman, D. C., & McGinnis , J. (2004). Interpreting Avicenna. Leiden: Brill.

Reisman, D. C., & al-Rahim, A. H. (2003). Before and After Avicenna. Leiden: Brill.

Shehaby, N. (1973). The Propositional Logic of Avicenna. Boston: Reidel Publishing Company.

Tahiri, H. (2016). Metaphysics and the Mind, an Introduction into Ibn Sina's Theory of Knowledge. Heidelberg: Springer.

Wisnovsky, R. (2003). Avicenna’s Metaphysics in Context. New York: Cornell University Press.