Despite his restless lifestyle, Avicenna produced an enormous philosophical auvre, of which about 130 titles are today considered authentic. His writings cover all fields of philosophy; however, they particularly excel in the areas of logic, natural philosophy (including psychology), and metaphysics. Apart from numerous short treatises focusing on individual topics, his auvre consists of comprehensive summas, such as the Book of the Healing (Kitab al-Shifa’),
Eastern Philosophy (al-Hikma al-mashriqiyya), and Pointers and Reminders (al-Isharat wa-l-tanblhat). In addition to philosophy, he is also renowned for his achievements in the field of medicine, and several of his medical writings have survived (cf. in particular his Qanun, Lat. Canon medicinae). Regarding philosophical orientation, Avicenna belongs primarily to the Aristotelian tradition, as is already apparent from his autobiography. Apart from Aristotle himself, his commentators, such as Alexander of Aphrodisias, had a great influence upon Avicenna’s thought. His philosophy is however also marked by a strong Neoplatonic strain, as well as by the thoughts of his Arabic predecessors, the first and foremost being al-Farabl.
His debt to Aristotle finds expression not only in doctrinal features, but also in his division of philosophy and in the structure of his works. In addition to his autobiography we might refer to Avicenna’s On the Division of the Intellectual Sciences (Risala fl aqsam al-‘ulum al-‘aqliyya), where he develops a classification of the sciences that corresponds to the curriculum created by the Alexandrian scholars of late Antiquity. A further piece of evidence is provided by the arrangement of his major philosophical works, particularly his Book of the Healing, which is divided into treatises according to the Alexandrian grouping of Aristotle’s writings, i. e., it is introduced by an organon (embracing reworkings of Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s logical writings, Rhetoric and Poetics), followed by three treatises dedicated to the main parts of theoretical philosophy, namely, natural philosophy, mathematics, and metaphysics. Ethics, by contrast, is entirely absent from his auvre, and political philosophy treated only in scattered chapters.
With respect to the continuity of Avicenna’s thought, there are certainly changes in several of his positions, so that it is impossible to speak of the philosophical system of our author. However, there is no complete rupture which would justify the distinction between an “Aristotelian” and a ‘‘mystical’’ Avicenna, or an ‘‘exoteric’’ and an ‘‘esoteric’’ Avicenna, as has repeatedly been defended by some scholars, such as A. F. Mehren, H. Corbin, or S. H. Nasr. Rather, these changes must be characterized as gradual developments, often provoked by systematic problems detected by Avicenna’s students and necessitating his reworking of the concerned issues, as is the case, e. g., with his theory of intuition and thinking (see Gutas 2001). Furthermore, the differences between his allegedly exoteric Aristotelian works and supposedly esoteric, which is to say, mystical thought, particularly ascribed to his Eastern Philosophy, have been shown to be stylistic, and not with regard to content. Those parts of the Eastern
Philosophy which are extant are in fact in neat doctrinal accordance with Avicenna’s most ‘‘Aristotelian’’ work, the Book of the Healing (see Gutas 2000).
Since it is impossible in the space of a short article to adequately discuss the intellectual developments of this philosopher, we will instead focus upon Avicenna’s Book of the Healing, and this for three reasons: first, it is his most comprehensive and detailed summa, covering all branches of philosophy (including logic). Second, it is probably the most accessible of Avicenna’s works, both with respect to availability of editions and translations, and with regard to the amount of research done upon it, thereby facilitating its study considerably. Third, of his philosophical works, this is the one that earned the broadest reception, spreading not only throughout the Arabic East, but also through the Latin West, owing to the great impact of its twelfth century translation on medieval thinkers. In this book, we will furthermore concentrate upon certain issues which - in the light of current research - must be considered Avicenna’s major achievements. These belong to the fields of (1) logic, (2) psychology, and (3) metaphysics.
World History
