Ibn Sina, Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn (980–1037)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salim Kemal
Keyword(s):  
Strong Influence ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Ultimate Truth ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Principal Role ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
Good And Evil

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) is one of the foremost philosophers in the Medieval Hellenistic Islamic tradition that also includes al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd. His philosophical theory is a comprehensive, detailed and rationalistic account of the nature of God and Being, in which he finds a systematic place for the corporeal world, spirit, insight, and the varieties of logical thought including dialectic, rhetoric and poetry. Central to Ibn Sina’s philosophy is his concept of reality and reasoning. Reason, in his scheme, can allow progress through various levels of understanding and can finally lead to God, the ultimate truth. He stresses the importance of gaining knowledge, and develops a theory of knowledge based on four faculties: sense perception, retention, imagination and estimation. Imagination has the principal role in intellection, as it can compare and construct images which give it access to universals. Again the ultimate object of knowledge is God, the pure intellect. In metaphysics, Ibn Sina makes a distinction between essence and existence; essence considers only the nature of things, and should be considered apart from their mental and physical realization. This distinction applies to all things except God, whom Ibn Sina identifies as the first cause and therefore both essence and existence. He also argued that the soul is incorporeal and cannot be destroyed. The soul, in his view, is an agent with choice in this world between good and evil, which in turn leads to reward or punishment. Reference has sometimes been made to Ibn Sina’s supposed mysticism, but this would appear to be based on a misreading by Western philosophers of parts of his work. As one of the most important practitioners of philosophy, Ibn Sina exercised a strong influence over both other Islamic philosophers and medieval Europe. His work was one of the main targets of al-Ghazali’s attack on Hellenistic influences in Islam. In Latin translations, his works influenced many Christian philosophers, most notably Thomas Aquinas.

scholarly journals Dialectics of Ethics

2022 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 025-054
Author(s):  
Feriel Bouhafa
Keyword(s):  
Moral Values ◽  
Rational Approach ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The Problem Of Evil ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Moral Ontology

Philosophical and theological ethics in the Islamic tradition tend to be appraised on the basis of a unilateral perspective, which circumvents a moral rational approach to intuition. On this account, moral knowledge is expected to rest on intuitive judgments, which are universally accessible to human beings. Looking at moral ontology and epistemology in Arabic philosophy, I demonstrate that taking intuitionism as the only valid rational discourse to ethics needs to be challenged. In fact, Arabic philosophers do not subscribe to a realist view of the good and evil in relation to human actions, and rather admit a division between cosmic values in metaphysics and moral values in ethics. In so doing, they show how metaphysics ascribes a substantial view to good in existence and a negative theory to evil, while the science of ethics admits a teleological and relative view of the good. Overall, the falāsifa remain committed to Aristotle’s premise that ethics does not rely on abstraction and emphasized the role of experience too. But, they seem to be also attentive to the dialectical nature of Islamic jurisprudence in producing norms considering both principles of the law and its particular application. This is also clear in their epistemology of ethical judgments such as the maxim justice is good. While they ascribe a universal status to ethical maxims, they preclude from granting them an absolute status over the authority of norms construction. Instead, philosophers attribute a dialectical role to ethical maxims to guarantee both consensus over norms and the possibility to produce truthful opinions. Keywords: Moral ontology and epistemology, The problem of evil, The nature of the good, Moral values, al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, Ibn Rushd, Legal epistemology, Written and unwritten laws, Ethical maxims, Widely-accepted premises (mashhūrāt), Reputable premises (maḥmūdāt).

Geocartographic thinking in modern science

2020 ◽  
Vol 961 (7) ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
A.K. Cherkashin
Keyword(s):  
Differential Geometry ◽  
Fiber Bundle ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
The State ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Map ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Geographical Environment ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Thematic Layer

The purpose of the study is to show how the features of geocartographic way of thinking are manifested in the meta-theory of knowledge based on mathematical formalisms. General cartographic concepts and regularities are considered in the view of metatheoretic analysis using cognitive procedures of fiber bundle from differential geometry. On levels of metainformation generalization, the geocartographic metatheoretic approach to the study of reality is higher than the system-theoretical one. It regulates the type of equations, models, and methods of each intertheory expressed in its own system terms. There is a balance between the state of any system and its geographical environment; therefore the observed phenomena are only explained theoretically in a metatheoretic projection on the corresponding system-thematic layer of the knowledge map. Metatheoretic research enables passing from the systematization of already known patterns to the formation of new knowledge through the scientific stratification of reality. General methods of metatheoretic analysis are mathematically distinguished

Necessity, Certainty, and the A Priori

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Casullo
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Mathematical Knowledge ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
Unitary Theory ◽  
Knowledge Based

Empiricist theories of knowledge are attractive for they offer the prospect of a unitary theory of knowledge based on relatively well understood physiological and cognitive processes. Mathematical knowledge, however, has been a traditional stumbling block for such theories. There are three primary features of mathematical knowledge which have led epistemologists to the conclusion that it cannot be accommodated within an empiricist framework: 1) mathematical propositions appear to be immune from empirical disconfirmation; 2) mathematical propositions appear to be known with certainty; and 3) mathematical propositions are necessary. Epistemologists who believe that some nonmathematical propositions, such as logical or ethical propositions, cannot be known a posteriori also typically appeal to the three factors cited above in defending their position. The primary purpose of this paper is to examine whether any of these alleged features of mathematical propositions establishes that knowledge of such propositions cannot be a posteriori.

Knowledge-Based Urban Design in the Architectural Academic Field

2018 ◽  
pp. 204-227
Author(s):  
Hisham Abusaada ◽  
Abeer Elshater
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Mental Ability ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Learning Plans ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter focuses on the theory of knowledge-based urban design as a tool for intellectual literacy in architecture schools. It explores the extent of the current knowledge effects in the educational process by knowing the experience gained by the students during the current learning plans, as opposed to what the urban designer should know. The dilemma is what could happen if the experts in the relevant disciplines of urban design do not accept such a paradigm shift or even recognize that there is intellectual illiteracy in a particular discipline and closely relevant fields by discussing some features of intellectual illiteracy in the academe of some developing countries. These features could provide a ground for accepting this theory. Furthermore, the chapter helps to present what can reduce the alleged intellectual illiteracy. In conclusion, this chapter provides an experimental attempt to explore the relationship between illiteracy of thought and mental ability among professionals in the field of urban design to raise their intellectual and cognitive competence.

Dreambooks

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-73
Author(s):  
Bronwen Neil
Keyword(s):  
Primary Concern ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Special Training ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The Many ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Early Islamic

This chapter on dreambooks from our three main religious traditions concentrates on the differences between reported male and female dreaming, and the different interpretative strategies that were applied in these sources to men’s and women’s dreams. It starts by considering where dreambooks or dream key manuals began in the Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman traditions. The importance of generic context is again paramount. Dreambooks were written as manuals for interpreters but eventually came to be used by laypersons without any special training. The problem of discernment between good and evil dreams, and their causes, was not the primary concern of dreambook writers or those who used them, nor did they worry about how dreams related to a future that was governed by providence. They were simply concerned with what a specific dream meant for the present and future: was it good or bad? Dream interpreters attempted to lend scientific credibility to the profession by laying out in detail the many factors that could influence the interpretation of a dream. One of these variables was the gender of the dreamer, as seen in a survey of dream symbols from the Oneirocriticon of Artemidorus, the Book of Blessings, Byzantine dreambooks, and the early Islamic tradition.

al-Farabi, Abu Nasr (c.870–950)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Richard Netton
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Ibn Sina ◽  
Concept Of God ◽  
Medieval Europe

Al-Farabi was known to the Arabs as the ‘Second Master’ (after Aristotle), and with good reason. It is unfortunate that his name has been overshadowed by those of later philosophers such as Ibn Sina, for al-Farabi was one of the world’s great philosophers and much more original than many of his Islamic successors. A philosopher, logician and musician, he was also a major political scientist. Al-Farabi has left us no autobiography and consequently, relatively little is known for certain about his life. His philosophical legacy, however, is large. In the arena of metaphysics he has been designated the ‘Father of Islamic Neoplatonism’, and while he was also saturated with Aristotelianism and certainly deploys the vocabulary of Aristotle, it is this Neoplatonic dimension which dominates much of his corpus. This is apparent in his most famous work, al-Madina al-fadila (The Virtuous City) which, far from being a copy or a clone of Plato’s Republic, is imbued with the Neoplatonic concept of God. Of course, al-Madina al-fadila has undeniable Platonic elements but its theology, as opposed to its politics, places it outside the mainstream of pure Platonism. In his admittedly complex theories of epistemology, al-Farabi has both an Aristotelian and Neoplatonic dimension, neither of which is totally integrated with the other. His influence was wide and extended not only to major Islamic philosophers such as Ibn Sina who came after him, and to lesser mortals such as Yahya ibn ‘Adi, al-Sijistani, al-‘Amiri and al-Tawhidi, but also to major thinkers of Christian medieval Europe including Thomas Aquinas.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document