AVICENN

A
 Ontology
• For Avicenna Human being is not just a
physical thing (again he proves it with
floating man) our sense were turn on, we
are aware of our existence, we are
basically a mind with a body, if I’m aware
that I (soul) exist and I’m not aware that my
body exist , therefore I (soul) and body is
not identical .
 Ex Nihilo
• The God (allah or the one or the necessary
existent cause ) created all things from nothing
doesn’t meant as a negation but also a signify
something, but Avicenna contradict this Islamic
belief that all things came from God ,heargued
that cosmos has no beginning but is a natural
logical product of the God and everything is
contingent in one another , one that exist
because of him is dependent in one another
 PROVE OF GOD
EXISTENCE
We are a contingent, we are from person to another,
from plant to another from animal to another , so there
must be an ultimate external cause , it cannot be out
the group of contingency because how could it affect
the chain of contingent if it is out , nor it cannot be
inside the group of contingency for it will going to be
also a part of the contingent process, so there must
be a necessary existent of external cause AKA God ,
 PROVE OF GOD
EXISTENCE
For Avicenna Existence (born from the necessarily of
God) and it includes also mental concepts. It cannot
be reduced to any other concept or divided into
components, such as genus and difference, and is as
such indefinable. As an immediate given to the
intellect, it applies to all beings. It is also worth nothing
that for Avicenna existence includes also mental
concepts. Everything one might conceive exists in a
certain way be it mental or real (base on the floating
man) . Essence is to be found independently of
actual realization of the floating man that he is
existing ,essence is considered as possibility with
existence as necessity, in relation to existence,
existence is a accident
 KNOWLEDGE
Avicenna's most influential theory in
epistemology is his theory of knowledge,
in which he developed the concept of
tabula rasa.

Empirical familiarity with objects in this

world from which one abstracts
universal concepts" which is developed
through a "syllogistic method of reasoning;
observations lead to prepositional
statements, which when compounded lead
to further abstract concepts."
 SOUL
• From existence to essence, we know that
essence come from the self awareness we gain
from existence (coming from the floating man,
extracting the knowledge that the man know
that he exist not his body) he conclude here that
essence or self awareness is a incorporeal or
immaterial soul , if I’m aware that I (soul) exist
and I’m not aware that my body exist , therefore
I (soul) and body is not identical .
 Seperation of mind (soul) and body
Aristotle
Hylemorphism – the body is just the
potentiality of the mind , when you
crash a iphone it is still a iphone ,but if
you remove the ios chip inside the
iphone it is just a blocky phone ,so you
can’t really separate the mind and the
body
(resilient dualism)
Avicenna
The floating man thought experiment ,
imagine your body just floating in the
space you sense blank sight hearing
taste feeling etc are all blank ,limbs are
seperated(sensory deprevation) and no
memory, except you know that you are
existing therefore ,you can still exist
without the affliation of the body , you
can separate both , we consider awake
comatose patient alive than a brain
dead patient (substitute dualism of
Plato)

Why Avicenna God is immaterial

Aristotle Avicenna
Aristotelian matter has four If it can be applied in
causes and it can be material thing it cannot be
applied on the material part of the necessary
thing (matter) existent because it must be
not related to material ,
contingent and material
thing
 God is necessarily
Aristotle Avicenna
We need a divine mover to explain There must be a necessary existent
the eternal motions of the heavens (God) if anything whatsoever exist
, like proving the complexity of the at all , artist proving himself by his
universe to prove that there is a art ,
creator , a reason that the awe we
see in the art is prove that there is
a artist per se,

Avicenna agreeing in Aristotle

notion of the soul
Aristotle Avicenna

Knowledge in proper sense is Same as the Soul (mind)

directed to universality the recognize the universality of
Telos of the object (like the one thing, but not what the
chairness) ,soul organize the thing is made of. Soul take
form , and the form to the the universal not the
matter particular