Science of the Soul in Ibn Sīnā's Pointers and Reminders

A Philological Study
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-04-54061-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 122, 332 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 696 g

Reihe: Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies

In Science of the Soul in Ibn Sina’s Pointers and Reminders, Michael A. Rapoport provides a philological and interpretive guide for critically reading and interpreting Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna, d. 1037) most challenging and influential text. Rapoport argues that chapters VII-X of the Pointers present scientific explanations for phenomena related to the human soul – from intellection to divination, magic, and marvels – within the framework of Ibn Sina’s Metaphysics of the Rational Soul. This book dispels widespread notions that the Pointers represents Ibn Sina’s mystical or Sufi philosophy and therefore stands apart from the rest of his corpus.

Autoren/Hrsg.

A Rapoport, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Nicht-Westliche Philosophie Islamische & Arabische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Philosophie & Wissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Chronology of Ibn Sina’s Works

Notes on Sources, Presentation, Transliteration, and Translation

Introduction

1 Ibn Sina and Mysticism

2 Metaphysics of the Rational Soul

3 The Uniqueness of the Pointers

4 Editions and Translations of the Pointers and Reminders

5 Objectives, Methodology, and Structure

6 Overview of Ibn Sina’s Internal Faculties

1 The Soul’s Independence from the Body

1 The Rational Soul’s Independence from the Body

2 Intellect and Intelligible Do Not Unite

3 God’s Knowledge of Particulars

4 Evil and the Order of the Good

5 Ibn Sina, Optimist

2 The Soul’s Ultimate Destination

1 Internal Pleasures Are Superior to External Pleasures

2 The Nature of Pleasure and Pain

3 Awareness of Pleasure and Pain

4 Pleasure and Pain in the Afterlife

5 Ranking Beings in Terms of Joy

6 Returning to the Final Destination

3 The Soul’s Intellectual Development

1 Differentiating Knowers from Non-knowers

2 The “Stages” (darajat) of the Human Intellect in Relation to Secondary Intelligibles

3 Knowledge (?irfan) and the Highest Stages

4 Characteristics of the Knower

5 A New Metaphor for a Familiar Epistemology

4 The Soul, Science, and the Supernatural

1 Marvelous Feats

2 Imaginative Knowledge

3 Motive Power

4 Naturalizing the Supernatural

5 Returning to Ibn Sina’s Mysticism/Sufism

1 Non-standard Epistemology

2 Union with the Divine

3 The Impossibility of Union for Ibn Sina

Conclusion

1 If Not Sufism or Mysticism, then What?

2 Concluding Remarks

Appendix 1: Comparison between Pointers and Ibn Sina’s Summae

Appendix 2: Comparison between Pointers and Ibn Sina’s Monographs

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Michael A. Rapoport, Ph.D. (2018), Yale University, is Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. His research on Ibn Sina and Arabic philosophy has appeared in Oriens and Nazariyat.