Avicenna’s concept of the soul: not despite Aristotle, but rather through Aristotle

Authors

  • Antonio Carlos de Madalena Genz UFRGS

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2014.3.22781

Keywords:

Avicenna. Soul. Aristotelianism. Neoplatonism. Substance.

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze Avicenna’s (Ibn Sina’s) concept of the soul as it was presented in The Book of the Soul, with special attention to the experiment of the Suspended Man in Space (HSE) and the issues that arise from it. These issues relate to the connection of Avicenna to Aristotelianism or Neoplatonism, the two major philosophical influences on the author. Although Avicenna makes use
primarily of Aristotelian concepts, with the experiment just mentioned
Avicenna breaks off with the Aristotelian conception of soul, affirming
its strict substantiality. In this article, we make the attempt of showing that, notwithstanding the notion of substantiality being strange to the Aristotelian framework, Avicenna is better understood, regarding the doctrine of the soul, when interpreted in an Aristotelian, instead of a Neoplatonic perspective.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Antonio Carlos de Madalena Genz, UFRGS

Doutor em filosofia pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).

References

IBN SINA (AVICENA). Livro da Alma. Tradução do árabe, introdução, notas e glossário de Miguel Attie Filho. São Paulo: Globo, 2011.

ATTIE FILHO, M. O intelecto no Livro da Alma de Ibn Sina (Avicena). Tese de Doutorado. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 2004.

BLACK, D. “Avicenna on Self-Awareness and Knowing that One Knows”. In: RAHMAN, Sh.; TAHIRI, H.; STREET, T. (Eds.). The Unity of Science in the Arabic Tradition. Dordrecht: Springer, 2008, p. 63-87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8405-8_3

GUERRERO, R. Ramon. El pensamiento filosófico árabe. Madrid: Editorial Cincel, 1985.

GUTAS, D. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. Introduction to Reading Avicenna’s Philosophical Works. Leiden: Brill, 1988. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004451100

HASSE, D. N. Avicenna’s “De anima” in the Latin West. The Formation of a Peripatetic Philosophy of the Soul 1160-1300. London – Turin: The Warburg Institute – Nino Aragno, 2000.

LIZZINI, O. Avicenna. Roma: Carocci Editore, 2012.

______. “L’âme chez Avicenne: quelques remarques autour de son statut épistémologique et de son fondement métaphysique”. In: Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale, 21 (2010), p. 223-242.

______. “Vie active, vie contemplative et philosophie chez Avicenne”. In: TROTTMANN, Ch. (Ed.). Vie active et vie contemplative au Moyen Âge et au seuil de la Renaissance.

Roma: École Française de Rome, 2009, p. 207-239. SEBTI, M. Avicenne: l’âme humaine. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2000.

Downloads

Published

2016-01-04

How to Cite

Genz, A. C. de M. (2016). Avicenna’s concept of the soul: not despite Aristotle, but rather through Aristotle. Veritas (Porto Alegre), 59(3), 430–449. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2014.3.22781

Issue

Vol. 59 No. 3 (2014): História da Filosofia e Filosofia Contemporânea

Section

Articles

License

Copyright

The submission of originals to Revista Veritas implies the transfer by the authors of the right for publication. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication. If the authors wish to include the same data into another publication, they must cite Revista Veritas as the site of original publication.


Creative Commons License

Except where otherwise specified, material published in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, which allows unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is correctly cited. Copyright: © 2006-2020 EDIPUCRS</p