The human soul's individuation and its survival after the body's death: Avicenna on the causal relation between body and soul

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 2000, Pages

  Druart, Thérèse Anne ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60949149909     PISSN: 09574239     EISSN: 14740524     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0957423900000102     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Dimitri Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical Works (Leiden, 1988), particularly pp. 254-61.
2. Arabic edition by Fazlur Rahman: Avicenna's De Anima (Arabic Text) Being the Psychological Part of Kitāb al-Shifā' (London, 1959), pp. 227-31;
3. Medieval Latin translation ed. by Simone Van Riet: Avicenna Latinus: Liber De Anima seu Sextus De Naturalibus, IV-V (Louvain-Leiden, 1968), pp. 113-20.
4. Arabic text of the parallel sections in the Najāt, ed. by Mohammed Dānesh Pazhuh (Tehran, 1985), pp. 378-83;
5. English translation by Fazlur Rahman, Avicenna's Psychology. An English Translation of Kitāb al-Najāt, Book II, Chapter VI with historico-philosophical notes and textual improvements on the Cairo edition (London, 1952), pp. 58-61.
6. For instance, "Avicenna on causal priority," in Parviz Morewedge (ed.), Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism (Delmar, N.Y., 1981), pp. 65-83
7. and "The metaphysics of efficient causality in Avicenna (Ibn Sina)," in Michael E. Marmura (ed.), Islamic Theology and Philosophy. Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani (Albany, N.Y., 1984), pp. 172-87.
8. See also Jean Jolivet, "La répartition des causes chez Aristote et Avicenne: Le sens d'un déplacement," in J. Jolivet, Z. Kaluza, & A. de Libera (eds.), Lectionum varietates. Hommage à Paul Vignaux (1904-1987), Études de Philosophie Médiévale, LXV (Paris, 1991), pp. 49-65.
9. For instance, Herbert A. Davidson in his remarkable Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroes on Intellect. Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, & Theories of Human Intellect (Oxford, 1992) in its long section on Avicenna (pp. 74-126) barely touches upon it.
10. Michael E. Marmura in "Avicenna and the problem of the infinite number of souls," Mediaeval Studies, 22 (1960): 232-9, explains how disciples of Avicenna thought that asserting the individuation of the separated human soul would lead to the problem of the infinite number of souls, though Avicenna had tried to solve it, and more importantly that Averroes refuted the individuation of the separated soul on the ground that matter is the individuating principle.
11. See also his "Ghazali and the Avicennan proof from personal identity for an immaterial self," in Ruth Link-Salinger (ed.), A Straight Path. Studies in Medieval Philosophy and Culture. Essays in Honor of Arthur Hyman (Washington, D.C., 1988), pp. 195-205.
12. On individuation in Avicenna, see Allan Bäck, "The Islamic background: Avicenna (b. 980; d. 1037) and Averroes (b. 1126; d. 1198)," in Jorge J.E. Gracia (ed.), Individuation in Scholasticism. The Later Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation 1150-1650 (Albany, 1994), pp. 39-67, particularly, pp. 40-53.
13. We will use the parallel passages in the Najāt only when they contain interesting additions or differences.
14. In this chapter Avicenna always uses the term hcombining dot belowudūth (Latin creatio), which I am translating as "temporal origination," instead of kawn (Latin generatio) or generation since he is looking for a cause of being, a metaphysical cause, and not simply a cause of "motion" or even of substantial change.
15. See the famous thought experiment of the "flying man", in I, 1, and V, 7 discussed by Michael E. Marmura, "Avicenna's "flying man" in context," The Monist, 69 (1986): 383-95.
16. See, Arabic, twice p. 224 and Latin, p. 106, 45 & 53-54.
17. The Najāt, p. 394 (Rahman's translation p. 68) states that the existence of the soul is simultaneous with that of the body but does not arise from ('an) the body but rather from a substance which is an immaterial form.
18. Arabic, p. 377, l. 4;
19. Rahman's translation, p. 58.
20. Arabic, p. 225;
21. Latin, pp. 108, 86-109, 87 is slightly different: propter quas affectiones ilia anima fit propria illius corporis.
22. Rahman's translation of the Najāt, p. 58.
23. Arabic, p. 22;
24. Latin, p. 109, 89-90.
25. Rahman's translation, p. 58;
26. Arabic text, p. 377.
27. See Thérèse-Anne Druart, "Al-Razi's conception of the soul: Psychological background to his ethics," Medieval Philosophy and Theology, 5 (1996): 245-63.
28. Bäck, in his article on individuation "The Islamic background," limits himself to the individuation of quiddities of sensible beings by means of matter and of concepts.
29. Already Davidson, in his Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroes on the Intellect, indicated that Avicenna's claim that in the next life "simpleminded souls," unable to conceive of their immateriality, suffer imaginary physical punishment seems inconsistent, since the compositive imagination requires a physical organ and the now disembodied soul has no such organ. Avicenna suggests that such a disembodied soul attaches itself to one of the celestial spheres and something in such a sphere is what the soul uses to exercises its compositive imaginative function. Davidson asserts that Avicenna does not expressly accept or reject this rationalization of a popular religious belief and that consistency does not allow him to accept it. Even if we would accept the solution of the attachment to a celestial sphere to ensure imagination for the separated soul, it would not solve the problem of its continuous individuation since the link would be not only to a different "bit" of sensible or sublunary matter but to some different kind of matter, celestial matter.
30. The Latin text is a bit muddled. See pp. 115-16.
31. Whether the human soul originates from one immaterial cause, i.e., the Agent Intellect, or from several as the plural here implies is not clear. See Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna, & Averroes, on Intellect. Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Intellect, & Theories of Human Intellect (New York-Oxford, 1992), pp. 80-1.
32. Arabic, al-Shifā', al-Ilāhiyyāt (La Métaphysique), ed. by G. C. Anawati and Sa'id Zayed, 2 vol. (Cairo, 1960);
33. Medieval Latin translation: Avicenna Latinus. Liber de philosophia prima sive scientia divina, ed. Simone Van Riet (Louvain-Leiden), Bk. I-IV, 1977;
34. Bk. V-X, 1980;
35. Indexes, 1983;
36. and French translation: Avicenne, La métaphysique du Shifā', transl. by Georges C. Anawati (Paris), Bk. I-V, 1978;
37. Bk. VI-X, 1985.
38. Al-Shifā' (al-Tcombining dot belowabī'iyyāt), 1: al-Samā' al-tcombining dot belowabī'ī, ed. by Said Zayed (Cairo, 1983);
39. Medieval Latin translation: Avicenna Latinus. Liber primus naturalium, Tractatus primus: De causis et principiis naturalium, ed. by Simone Van Riet (Louvain-La-Neuve-Leiden, 1992).
40. See Arabic, p. 16, 17-18
41. Latin p. 25, 24-26;
42. Arabic, p. 18, 1-2
43. Latin, p. 27, 76-77;
44. Arabic, p. 30, 6
45. Latin, p. 51, 33-34.
46. Arabic, p. 263, 16-18;
47. Latin, p. 300, 87-91.
48. There is an English translation of the first two chapters of Metaphysics, Bk VI, by Arthur Hyman in Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions, 2nd ed. (Indianapolis, 1983), pp. 247-55.
49. There is an English translation of that chapter in Marmura, "Avicenna on causal priority," pp. 73-83.