Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
c. 980 – 1037 · Near Bukhara; Hamadan, Persia
A physician and philosopher whose 'floating man' argument and distinction between essence and existence shaped philosophy in both the Islamic world and Latin Europe.
Key ideas
In his 'floating man' thought experiment, Ibn Sina asks you to imagine a person created fully formed, suspended in the air, blindfolded, limbs apart so that they touch nothing. Such a person, he argued, would still be aware of their own existence while being aware of no body at all. So the self is something distinct from the body. The argument is an ancestor of René Descartes's case for substance dualism and belongs to the debate in the mind-body problem.
He also distinguished a thing's essence, what it is, from its existence, that it is. For every ordinary thing the two are separate, so its existence needs a cause. Following that chain, he argued, leads to a necessary being whose essence just is to exist. The argument is one of the main threads in why there is something rather than nothing.
His work built on Aristotle but changed it substantially, and became the main framework for later philosophy in Arabic and Persian. Translated into Latin, it influenced Thomas Aquinas and the medieval universities.
Life, briefly
Ibn Sina was born near Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan, and was famously precocious; by his own account he had mastered medicine by eighteen. He served as physician and minister to several rulers in a politically unstable Persia, at times writing on horseback or in prison.
His Canon of Medicine was a standard medical textbook in Europe and the Middle East for centuries. He died in Hamadan in 1037.
Major works
- The Book of Healing (al-Shifa)
- The Canon of Medicine
- The Book of Salvation (al-Najat)
- Pointers and Reminders
Appears in
Further reading
- EncyclopediaStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
- WikipediaAvicenna