Notes on Avicenna's concept of thingness (šay'iyya)

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 2000, Pages

  Wisnovsky, Robert ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 60950210279     PISSN: 09574239     EISSN: 14740524     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0957423900000084     Document Type: Note

References (331)

1. "Aux origines de l'ontologie d'Ibn Sīnā," in. J. Jolivet and R. Rashed (eds), Études sur Avicenne (Paris, 1984), 19-28.
2. It is true that māhiyya, "quiddity," is only one of several terms - including hcombining dot belowaqīqa, dcombining minus sign belowāt, scombining dot belowūra, tcombining dot belowabī'a and, as we shall see, šay'iyya - which, taken as a whole, constitute Avicenna's idea of "essence" (cf. A.-M. Goichon, La distinction de l'essence et de l'existence d'après Ibn Sīnā (Avicenne) [Paris, 1937], 48). As will become clear, māhiyya is first among equals in this cluster of terms. Goichon sees dcombining minus sign belowāt as the essential term for essence, following the lead of its Latin translation as essentia; māhiyya, by contrast, was rendered as quidditas.
3. q-d-r: 2:20, 2:26, 2:109, 2:148, 2:259, 2:284, 3:26, 3:29, 3:165, 3:189, 4:85, 5:17, 5:19, 5:40, 5:120, 6:17, 8:41, 9:39, 11:4, 16:77, 18:45, 22:6, 24:45, 29:20, 30:50, 33:27, 35:1, 41:39, 42:9, 46:33, 48:21, 57:2, 59:6, 64:1, 65:12; '-l-m: 2:29, 2:231, 2:282, 4:32, 4:176, 5:97, 6:80, 6:101, 7:89, 8:75, 9:115, 20:98, 21:81, 24:35, 24:64, 29:42, 29:62, 33:40, 33:54, 40:7, 42:12, 48:26, 49:16, 57:3, 58:7, 64:11; hcombining caron below-l-q: 6:101, 6:102, 13:16, 16:48, 20:50, 25:2, 27:88, 32:7, 39:62, 40:62, 51:49, 54:49; š-h-d: 4:33, 5:117, 22:17, 33:55, 34:47, 41:53, 58:6 (and implied in 3:5, 14:38, 40:16); w-k-l: 6:102, 11:12, 39:62; hcombining dot below-f-zcombining dot below: 11:57, 34:21; hcombining dot below-y-tcombining dot below: 4:126, 41:54; hcombining dot below-s-b: 4:86; and r-q-b: 33:52.
4. Sībawayhi (d. ca. 796), al-Kitāb I, ed. I.B. Ya'qūb (Beirut, 1999), 47,7;
5. and ap. al-Zabīdī, Tāǧ al-'arūs min ǧawāhir al-qāmūs I, ed. 'A. Šīrī (Beirut, 1994), 185a20-21 and 27-28.
6. The formulation al-šay' huwa mā yaǧūzu an yuhcombining breve belowbara 'anhu is also found in al-Hcombining breve belowwārizmī (d. 997), Mafātihcombining dot below al-'ulūm, ed. G. van Vloten (Leiden, 1895), 22,14-15; in that same work al-Hcombining breve belowwārizmī reports (199,14-200,1) that šay' is also used by the "Algebrists" as a kind of universal variable.
7. Ps.-Abū Hcombining dot belowanīfa (ca. 950), al-Fiqh al-akbar (= Mullā 'Alī b. Sultān Muhcombining dot belowammad al-Qārī, Šarhcombining dot below a'l-fiqh al-akbar, ed. M.M. al-Ša"ār [Beirut, 1997], 16,18).
8. The term amr is used synonymously with šay' to refer to the things which God is saying "Be!" to, at 2:117, 3:47, 19:35, 36:82 and 40:68. In his Tafsīr (ad 2:117) Tcombining dot belowabarī (d. 923) describes the positions of various "interpreters" (mu'awwilūn) on this issue (Tafsīr al-Tcombining dot belowabarī II, ed. M.M. Šākir [Cairo, 1954], 542,1-550,7).
9. On this see H. Wolfson, "The Kalam problem of nonexistence and Saadia's second theory of creation," Jewish Quarterly Review, 36 (1946): 371-91
10. reprised in his The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), 359-72.
11. The world-view of the eternalists was shaped partly by Aristotelian notions of potentiality (quwwa) and actuality (fi'l) then coming into circulation. See, for example, al-Kindī (d. ca. 870), Risāla fī al-ibāna 'an suǧūd al-ǧirm al-aqscombining dot belowā wa-tcombining dot belowā'atihi li-Allāh (= R. Rashed and J. Jolivet (eds), Œuvres philosophiques et scientifiques d'al-Kindī. Vol. II: Métaphysique et cosmologie [Leiden, 1998], 187,3-19)
12. as well as the evidence preserved in the Jābirean corpus (ca. 900) (= Jābir ibn Hcombining dot belowayyān: Essai sur l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'islam. Vol. 1: Textes choisis, ed. P. Kraus [Paris, 1935])
13. where one can detect the infiltration of notions of potentiality and actuality into the šay'/mawǧūd/ma'dūm paradigm: Kitāb ikhrāǧ mā fī al-quwwa ilā al-fi'l, 2,14-3,1;
14. Kitāb al-hcombining breve belowawāscombining dot belowscombining dot below al-kabīr, 357,1-2;
15. Kitāb al-mīzān al-scombining dot belowaġīr, 427,3-5;
16. 431,8-11;
17. 445,13-14;
18. 451,18.
19. See al-Aš'arī (d. 935), Maqālāt al-islāmiyyǐn I, ed. H. Ritter (Istanbul, 1929), 158,1-163,8
20. and 181,1-182,4;
21. al-Aš'arī, Maqālāt al-islāmiyyǐn II, ed. H. Ritter (Istanbul, 1930), 518,4-519,8.
22. Perhaps our earliest source regarding the debate over things and existents is the Zaydī Shi'ite al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm (d. 860), Kitāb al-dalīl al-kabīr, ed. B. Abrahamov (Leiden, 1990), 74,10-76,7.
23. Mu'tazilites: al-Khayyāt (d. ca. 913), Kitāb al-intiscombining dot belowār, ed. H.S. Nyberg, (Cairo, 1925), 60,4-14;
24. 107,6-108,8;
25. 126,1-2;
26. Sa'diyā al-Fayyūmī (i.e. Saadia Gaon, d. 942), Kitāb al-amānāt wa al-i'tiqādāt, ed. S. Landauer (Leiden, 1880), 11,10-12
27. and 213,13-15;
28. 'Abd al-Ǧabbār (d. 1025), al-Muġnī fī abwāb al-tawhīd wa al-'adl, ed. M.M. Hcombining dot belowilmī et al. (Cairo, 1958f.), IV 247,12-13;
29. V 202,8-203,9;
30. 249,4-8;
31. 251,3-4;
32. 252,4-6;
33. VI/1 79,17-80,15;
34. VI/2 75,5-77,7
35. and 135,3-136,9;
36. VIII 74,1-82,12;
37. XII 20,1-3
38. and 48,5-6.
39. Aš'arites: Ibn Fūrak (d. 1015), Muǧarrad maqālāt al-Aš'arī, ed. D. Gimaret (Beirut, 1987), 42,7-18
40. and 252,4-256,22;
41. and al-Bāqillānī (d. 1013), Kitāb al-tamhīd, ed. R.J. McCarthy (Beirut, 1957), 193,17-194,6;
42. 195,6-196,12;
43. 266,4-9.
44. (In fact, al-Aš'arī admitted in his Kitāb al-'amad that he himself had originally held the Mu'tazilite position: "We wrote a book on the topic of "thing," namely, that things are things even if they be non-existent. We have retreated from it [i.e. The position articulated in this book] and [now] contradict it, so whoever comes across it [the book], let him not place any store by it"; reported by Ibn 'Asākir, Tabyīn kadcombining minus sign belowib al-muftarī fī-mā nusiba ilā al-Imām Abī al-Hcombining dot belowasan al-Aš'arī, no ed. [Damascus, 1928], 133,5-6.)
45. Māturīdites: al-Māturīdī (d. ca. 944), Kitāb al-tawhcombining dot belowīd, ed. F. Kholeif (Beirut, 1970), 39,20-43,21;
46. 86,2-92,20;
47. 104,8-106,18;
48. 242,3-16;
49. and Abū al-Layt̄ al-Samarqandī (d. ca. 990), Šarhcombining dot below al-fiqh al-absatcombining dot below li-Abī Hanīfa, ed. H. Daiber (as The Islamic Concept of Belief in the 4th/10th Century) (Tokyo, 1995), 119,1-2 (= lines 426-7).
50. Shi'ites: al-Shaykh al-Mufīd (d. 1022), Awā'il al-maqālāt fī al-madcombining minus sign belowāhib wa-al-muhtārāt, ed. M. Muhcombining dot belowaqqiq (Tehran, 1993), 42,14-19.
51. See also R.M. Frank, "Al-ma'dūm wal-mawjūd," MIDEO, 14 (1980): 185-210;
52. and now his "The Aš'arite ontology: I Primary entities," Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 9/2 (1999): 163-231;
53. A. Dhanani, The Physical Theory of Kalām (Leiden, 1994), 27 n.4 and 29-30;
54. M.J. McDermott, The Theology of al-Šayhcombining breve below al-Mufīd (Beirut, 1978), 196-9;
55. F. Klein-Franke, "The non-existent is a thing," Le Muséon, 104 (1994): 375-90;
56. D. Gimaret, Les noms divins en Islam (Paris, 1988), 142-50;
57. and J. van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra (Berlin, 1991-1997), I 357f.;
58. II 481f. and 499-501;
59. IV 45-9 and 432-5.
60. Œuvres philosophiques et scientifiques d'al-Kindī II, 41,3-43,18.
61. It is true that to ti ēn einai (and its variants) was translated as māhiyya only rarely, and primarily in the context of distinguishing definition (al-hcombining dot belowadd) from property (al-hcombining breve belowāscombining dot belowscombining dot belowa): the former is a statement that "indicates the thing's essence" (al-dāll 'alā māhiyyat al-šay'), the latter one that does not. See, for example, Top. 101b38-102a1
62. (= Tcombining dot belowūbīka, in Mantcombining dot belowiq Aristcombining dot belowū II, ed. 'A. Badawī [Cairo, 1949], 474,17);
63. 102a21 (= 475,14);
64. 103b10-11 (= 481,11);
65. and 154a30 (= Mantcombining dot belowiq Aristcombining dot belowū III, ed. 'A. Badawī [Cairo, 1952], 685,12-13).
66. In the Organon to ti ēn einai was mostly translated as mā huwa. See, for example, An. Post. 83a21
67. (= Tahcombining dot belowlīlāt tcombining minus sign belowāniyya, in Mantcombining dot belowiq Aristcombining dot belowū, II, 375,6);
68. 83b5 (= 376,14);
69. 84a26 (= 380,8);
70. 97a25 (= 448,5)
71. and 97b2 (= 449,4);
72. 102a32-33 (= 476,12);
73. 103b21.30.34 (= 482,4.12.15);
74. 120b21 (= 552,15);
75. 122a5-6.12-19.21.32.36 (= 557,18
76. 558,6-11.13
77. and 559,4.8.9.10.11 bis);
78. 128a14.19 (= 581,15
79. and 582,1)
80. and 148a1 (= 656,8).
81. It is also translated as mā huwa al-šay': An. Post. 79a25.27.29
82. (= Tahcombining dot belowlīlāt tcombining minus sign belowāniyya, 354,2.4.5)
83. and Top. 101b22
84. (= Tcombining dot belowūbīka, 474,1);
85. and as mā al-šay': An. Post. 82b37
86. (= Tahcombining dot belowlīlāt t̄āniyya, 373,15);
87. and Top. 101b21
88. (= Tcombining dot belowūbīka, 473,17);
89. Top. 103b24.26
90. (= Tcombining dot belowūbīka, 482,8.9)
91. and 148a1 (= 656,7).
92. In the Metaphysics, to ti ēn einai was translated as mā huwa at 994b17 (= Mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a I, 34,8)
93. and 993a18 (= I, 161,13);
94. as mā hiya and mā al-šay' at 1016a33-34 (= II, 536,5-6);
95. as mā huwa al-šay' at 994a11 (= I, 17,3);
96. as mā anniyyat al-šay' at 1024b29 (= II, 685,1);
97. and as mā kaynūnat al-šay' at 1013b22 (= II, 487,14).
98. Mostly, however, to ti ēn einai in the Metaphysics was translated as mā huwa bi al-anniyya: at 1025b29-29 (= II 705,8);
99. 1030a6 (= II 795,10);
100. 1030a17 (= II 798,6);
101. 1030a29 (= II 802,6);
102. 1031a9-10 (= II 818,10);
103. 1031a18 (= II 821,16);
104. 1031b30 (= II 831,7);
105. 1033b7 (= II 860,15-16);
106. 1035b16 (= II 903,8);
107. 1037a21 (= II 936,8-9);
108. 1037a33-b1 (= II 939,15);
109. 1044a36 (= II 1074,1);
110. 1045b3 (= II 1096,13);
111. and 1075a2 (= II 1693,1).
112. Al-Fārābi, Kitāb al-hcombining dot belowurūf, ed. M. Mahdī (Beirut, 1969), 116,23-117,1.
113. Al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-hcombining dot belowurūf, 128,6-8.
114. Al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-hcombining dot belowurūf, 125,12-13.
115. In Metaph. 4.2, 1003b10
116. (= Averroes, Tafsīr Mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a I, ed. M. Bouyges [Beirut, 1938], 301,9-10) Aristotle claims that we can say that even something that is non-existent (to mē on = alladcombining minus sign belowī laysa bi huwiyyatin) in some sense is non-existent (einai mē on = fa-innahu laysa huwiyyatan).
117. Generally speaking, to on in the Metaphysics was translated into Arabic not as almawǧūd but as al-huwiyya ("being"). Fārābī's analysis is discussed by Jolivet, "Origines," 17;
118. S. Abed, Aristotelian Logic and the Arabic Language in Alfārābī (Albany, N.Y., 1991), 111-17;
119. F. Zimmermann, Al-Fārābī's Commentary and Short Treatise on Aristotle's De Interpretatione (London, 1981), xliv-xlv, lx-lxiii and cxxx-cxxxiv;
120. and F. Shehadi, Metaphysics in Islamic Philosophy (Delmar, N.Y., 1982), 45-69.
121. Kitāb al-šfā': al-Ilāhiyyāt, eds G. Qanawātī and S. Zāyid (Cairo, 1960), 29,5-34,14.
122. On this see also P. Hadot, "Sur divers sens du mot pragma dans la tradition philosophique grecque," in P. Aubenque (ed.), Concepts et catégories dans la pensée antique (Paris, 1980), 309-19.
123. Parmenides, fr. VI, lines 1-2 (esti gar einai, mēden d'ouk estin - "There is being, but there is no nothing") and VII,1 (ou gar mēpote touto damēi einai mē eonta - "That there are non-existent things will never be proven") (In fact, Parmenides comes across as a proto-Aš'arite when Fārābī quotes him as asserting that "All that is non-existent is not a thing" - wa-kullu mā huwa ġayru mawǧūdin fa-laysa bi-šay'in: al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-hcombining dot belowurūf, 128,19);
124. Plato, Sophist 236E onwards;
125. Aristotle, Metaph. 4.2, 1003b10
126. (At Metaph. 14.2, 1089a5-28
127. Aristotle argues that Plato's conception of to mē on as "the false" - to pseudos - is useless in explaining generation and corruption, and proposes that a better conception of to mē on is "the potential" - to kata dunamin - a position followed explicitly by Fārābī, K. al-hcombining dot belowurūf, 120,8-121,6
128. and 123,1-124,4;
129. see also Aristotle's distinction between absolute and incidental non-existence in Phys. 1.8 and 1.9, 191a23-192b7).
130. On the Stoic ontology, and on the way in which incorporeals are said to "subsist" rather than "exist," see P. Hadot, "Zur Vorgeschichte des begriffes Existenz: huparkhein bei den Stoikern," Archiv fūr Begriffsgeschichte, 13 (1969): 115-27;
131. A. Graeser, "À propos huparkhein bei den Stoikern," Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte, 15 (1971): 299-305;
132. V. Goldschmidt, "Huparkhein et huphistanai dans la philosophie stoïcienne," Revue des Études Grecques, 85 (1972): 331-44;
133. P. Pasquino, "Le statut ontologique des incorporels," in J. Brunschwig (ed.), Les Stoīciens et leur logique (Paris, 1978), 375-86;
134. J. Brunschwig, "The Stoic theory of the supreme genus and Platonic ontology" and "On a Stoic way of not being," both originally published in French (as "La théorie stoïcienne du genre suprēme et l'ontologie platonicienne," in J. Barnes and M. Mignucci (eds.), Matter and Metaphysics: Fourth Symposium Hellenisticum (Naples, 1988), 19-127
135. and "Sur une façon stoïcienne de ne pas être," Revue de théologie et de philosophie, 122 [1990]: 389-403)
136. and translated into English by J. Lloyd in Brunschwig's Papers in Hellenistic Philosophy (Cambridge, 1994), 92-157 and 158-169;
137. and now V. Caston, "Something and nothing: The Stoics on concepts and universals," Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 17 (1999): 145-213.
138. e.g. F. Jadaane, L'influence du stoïcisme sur la pensée musulmane (Beirut, 1968), 43-98;
139. J. van Ess, Die Erkenntnislehre des 'Adcombining dot belowludaddīn al-Īcī (Wiesbaden, 1966), 191-200;
140. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, 355-72;
141. S. Pines, Beiträge zur islamischen Atomenlehre (Berlin, 1936), 116-17;
142. these are reviewed briefly by Gutas in his "Pre-Plotinian philosophy in Arabic (other than Platonism and Aristotelianism): a review of the sources," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, II.36.7 (Berlin, 1994), 4939-73, at 4959-62.
143. Alexander, in Top. 4.1 (ad 121a10), CAG II, 301,19-25.
144. Ibn al-Nadīm, Kitāb al-fihrist, ed. G. Flügel (Leipzig, 1871), 249,17-19.
145. Alexander in Top. 42,37
146. and 359,12-16;
147. Simplicius in Cat., CAG VIII, 105,7-20;
148. 209,10;
149. 222,30-33;
150. 333,31.
151. Avicenna's discussion of things and existents in Ilāhiyyāt 1.5 is related to similar treatments in Aquinas' work by I. Craemer-Ruegenberg, "'Ens est quod primum cadit in intellectu' - Avicenna und Thomas von Aquin," in U. Tworuschka (ed.), Gottes ist der Orient - Gottes ist der Okzident (Köln, 1991), 133-42.
152. Mullā Mahdī Narāqī, Šarhcombining dot below al-ilāhiyyāt min kitāb al-šifā', ed. M. Muhcombining dot belowaqqiq (Tehran, 1986), 265,2.
153. M. Marmura ("Avicenna on primary concepts in the Metaphysics of his al-Shifā'," in R. Savory and D. Agius (eds), Logos Islamikos: Studia islamica in honorem Georgii Michaelis Wickens [Toronto, 1984], 219-39;
154. revised slightly in his "Avicenna and the Kalām," ZGAIW, 7 [1991/1992], 172-206) argues that what troubled Avicenna specifically was the Mu'tazilite Abū Hāšim's and his followers' application of their š'ay'/mawǧūd/ma'dūm paradigm to the problem of bodily resurrection.
155. Also see D. Black's discussion of the dilemmas that faced Avicenna in distinguishing between fictional entities such as phoenixes, which seem to have some kind of mental existence even though they never exist as concrete objects in the outside world, and impossibilities such as a square circle, which seem to have neither mental nor concrete existence: "Avicenna on the ontological and epistemic status of fictional beings," Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale, 8 (1997): 425-53.
156. Strangely enough, Ǧuwaynī devoted a long section of his Šāmil to reviewing the debate about things and existents, yet does not once use the term šay'iyya there: al-Šāmil fī uscombining dot belowūl al-dīn, ed. 'A.M. 'Umar (Beirut, 1999), 23,18-33,24;
157. but see his use of the term in other contexts, at 113,2.4;
158. 161,25.26.27;
159. and 169,6.17.
160. Šahrastānī uses šay'iyya in several places: Kitāb nihāyat al-iqdām fī 'ilm al-kalām, ed. A. Guillaume, no date, 33,20;
161. 73,17;
162. 150,7.8.10;
163. and 151,2.7.
164. For an argument that Šahrastānī is more properly described as an Ismā'īlī, rather than an Aš'arite, see D. Steigerwald, La pensée philosophique et théologique de Shahrastānī (Québec, 1997).
165. Ġazālī himself mentions the Mu'tazilite view without using šay'iyya: Tahāfut al-falāsifa, ed. M. Bouyges (Beirut, 1927), 358,8-11.
166. Abū Ǧa'far Muhcombining dot belowammad b. Ya'qūb al-Kulaynī, al-Uscombining dot belowūl min al-kāfi, ed. 'Alī Akbar al-Ġaffārī (Tehran, 1961), 82,4-85,9
167. at 83,6-8.
168. In Ibn Bābawayh's slightly later collection of Imāmī Shi'ite sayings, šay'iyya is also used in the context of affirming that God is a thing unlike other things, except this time in a passage attributed to Ǧa'far al-Scombining dot belowādiq's son, Mūsā al-Kāzcombining dot belowim: Abū Ga'far Muhcombining dot belowammad ibn Bābawayh al-Scombining dot belowadūq, Kitāb al-tawhcombining dot belowīd (Bombay (?), 1903), 94,9-95,1.
169. Māturīdī, Kitāb al-tawhcombining dot belowīd, 41,10 bis.15;
170. 86,3.16;
171. 104,10.11.12.15;
172. 132,19;
173. 238,9.10;
174. 242,8.9.11.12.13.14 bis.18.
175. See D. Gimaret's brief discussion of Māturīdī's use of šay'iyya, in his Théories de l'acte humain en théologie musulmane (Paris, 1980), 182-184 and 203.
176. Abū al-Laytcombining minus sign below al-Samarqandī, Šarhcombining dot below al-fiqh al-absatcombining dot below li-Abī Hcombining dot belowanīfa, 119,1.2 (= lines 426-7).
177. On Avicenna's Hcombining dot belowanafite education, see D. Gutas, "Avicenna's madcombining minus sign belowhab with an appendix on the question of the date of his birth," Quaderni di studi arabi, 5-6 (1987-1988): 323-36.
178. On Ismā'īl al-Zāhid, see W. Gohlman (ed. and trans.), The Life of Ibn Sina (Albany, N.Y., 1974), 20,4-7
179. and al-Hcombining breve belowatcombining dot belowib al- Baġdādī, Tārīhcombining breve below Baġdād 6, no ed. (Beirut, 1968), 310,17-311,18 (= #3355).
180. On Māturīdism in Transoxania, see W. Madelung, "The spread of Māturīdism and the Turks," Actas do IV Congresso de Estudos Árabes e Islâmicos Coimbra-Lisboa 1968 (Leiden, 1971), 109-68
181. 2, vi, 847
182. and now U. Rudolph, al-Māturīdī und die sunnitische Theologie in Samarkand (Leiden, 1996).
183. Rudolph, al-Māturīdī, 212-13;
184. compare al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-hcombining dot belowurūf, 111,17-21.
185. Kitāb al-šifā': al-Mantcombining dot belowiq (1)/al-Madhcombining breve belowal, eds G. Qanawātī, M. al-Khudcombining dot belowayrī and F. al-Ahwānī (Cairo, 1952), 15,1-7.
186. Madhcombining breve belowal 1.12, 65,4-12.
187. On this passage see M. Marmura, "Avicenna's chapter on universals in the Isagoge of his Shifā'," in A. Welch and P. Cachia (eds), Islam: Past Influence and Present Challenge (Edinburgh, 1979), 34-56.
188. Ilāhiyyāt 5.1, 196,6-13.
189. Ilāhiyyāt 7.1, 303,6-12.
190. Avicenna's assertion that mawǧūd and wāhcombining dot belowid are extensionally identical but intensionally different almost certainly derives from Aristotle's discussions in Metaph. 4.2, 1003b22-1004a2
191. (contained in Tafsīr Mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a I, 310,1-311,4
192. and 316,9) where Aristotle discusses how "that which is" (to on = al-huwiyya) and "that which is one" (to hen = al-wāhcombining dot belowid) can be seen to be extensionally identical but intensionally different, in the sense that both are equally predicable of substance (ousia). See also "'That which is one' is said of [the same things] 'that which is' is said of (to hen legetai hōsper kai to on = yuqāl al-wāhid ka-mitcombining minus sign belowli mā tuqāl al-huwiyya aydcombining dot belowan) at Metaph. 7.16, 1040b16-24
193. (= Tafsīr Mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a II, 999,14-1000,5);
194. and "'That which is' and 'that which is one' are the predicates spoken most universally of everything" (to gar on kai to hen katholou katēgoreitai malista pantōn = fa-inna al-wāhcombining dot belowid wa-al-huwiyya maqūlāt kulliyya aktcombining minus sign belowar dcombining minus sign belowālika tuqāl 'alā ǧami' al-ašyā') at Metaph. 10.2, 1053b16-21
195. (= Tafsīr Mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a III, 1268,11-1269,3).
196. Kitāb al-naǧāt, ed. M. Fakhry (Beirut, 1985), 245, 20-21.
197. This passage is identical to Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya, MS Uppsala OR. 364, 2v8-10, but given how little we know about the Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya text, and given the many correspondences between it and the Naǧāt, it is impossible to say if the Naǧāt passage is a copy of the very early Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya passage, or if what purports to be the Hcombining dot belowikma Arūdcombining dot belowiyya passage is merely a copy of the later Naǧāt. Gutas discusses the Naǧāt's correspondence to Avicenna's earliest works in Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 87-93 and 112-14.
198. Much ink has been spilled trying to determine how Avicenna meant this extra aspect of essence to be understood. Some maintain that it should be understood simply in the context of a thought experiment, in which māhiyya can be separated in a purely logical sense from its existence as a concrete individual in the outside world and from its existence as a universal concept in the mind. Others, citing remarks Avicenna makes in Ilāhiyyāt 5.2, believe that the passage provides evidence that Avicenna thought existence was attached to essence merely as an accident. Western interpreters in the Catholic tradition have generally understood Avicenna as implying the latter, but consensus is now emerging that the former is also a feasible interpretation. For a sampling of different views see Goichon, La distinction de l'essence et de l'existence;
199. É. Gilson, L'Être et l'essence (Paris, 1948), 121-31;
200. F. Rahman, "Essence and existence in Avicenna," Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies, 4 (1958), 1-16;
201. P. Morewedge, "Philosophical analysis of Ibn Sīnā's essence-existence distinction," JAOS, 92/3 (1972): 425-35;
202. F. Rahman, "Essence and existence in Ibn Sīnā: the myth and the reality," Hamdard Islamicus, 4 (1981): 3-14;
203. D. Burrell, "Essence and existence: Avicenna and Greek philosophy," MIDEO, 17 (1986): 53-66;
204. S. H. Nasr, "Existence (wuǧūd) and quiddity (māhiyyah) in Islamic philosophy," International Philosophical Quarterly, 29/4 (1989): 409-28;
205. M. Marmura, "Quiddity and universality in Avicenna," in P. Morewedge (ed.), Neoplatonism and Islamic Thought (Albany, N.Y., 1992), 77-87.
206. Ilāhiyyāt, 292,6-294,5.
207. Naǧāt/Ilāhiyyāt 1.11, 248,8-15;
208. šay'iyya occurs on 248,9.10.11.14.
209. As mentioned above, Gutas discusses the correspondence of the Naǧāt to the Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya, Avicenna's earliest summa, in his Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 87-93 and 112-14.
210. But unlike surrounding sections of the Naǧāt, the discussion of causes is not identical to the analogous section in the Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya. In the earlier work, under the heading of al-mabda' ("origin"), Avicenna devotes only a very brief section to the causes, in which he combines and summarizes Aristotle's discussions in Metaph. 5.1 (on arkhē) and 5.2 (on aition). The efficient and final causes are called sababāni mufariqāni (the two causes extrinsic to the effect), as opposed to the material and formal causes, which are called sababāni muqārināni (the two causes intrinsic to the effect). But there is no mention of how the efficient and final causes relate to each other: Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya, 4v16-5r5.
211. The manuscripts examined for the Cairo edition are described in the introduction to G. Anawati's French translation of the Ilāhiyyāt (Avicenne: La Métaphysique du Shifā' [Paris, 1978], 17-21).
212. The use of šay'iyya in the Naǧāt is confirmed in the Renaissance edition: Kitāb al-naǧāt muhcombining breve belowtascombining dot belowar al-šifā' li-ibn Sīnā (Rome, 1593), 58,22-26.
213. Ed. S. van Riet, Avicenna Latinus: Liber de philosophia prima sive scientia divina V-X (Leiden, 1980), 337,88.90.91.92.94.96.97.00.1.3.5
214. and 338,11
215. (= Ilāhiyyāt, 292,6 bis.8.9 bis. 10.12.14.16 and 293,2.3.4.8).
216. On the translators, see ed. S. van Riet, Avicenna Latinus: Liber de philosophia prima sive scientia divina I-IV (Leiden, 1977), 123.
217. Liber de philosophia prima V-X, 336,87-337,88
218. (= Ilāhiyyāt, 292,6).
219. Ed. S. van Riet, Avicenna Latinus: Liber de anima seu sextus de naturalibus I-III (Leiden, 1972), 95-98
220. and C. Burnett, The Coherence of the Arabic-Latin Translation Programme in Toledo in the Twelfth Century (Berlin, 1997), 12-14.
221. This is the theory advanced by d'Alverny with regard to two instances where, as she understood it, cosà had been misunderstood as causa. These are mentioned (without references to the text) in M.T. d'Alverny, "L'introduction d'Avicenne en Occident," Revue du Caire, 14/141 (1951): 130-9, at 133
222. and repeated in her "Les traductions latines d'Ibn Sina et leur diffusion au Moyen Age," Millénaire d'Avicenne (Cairo, 1952), 59-69, at 60.
223. The instances of mistranslation she probably had in mind are S. van Riet (ed.), Avicenna Latinus: Liber de anima seu sextus de naturalibus I-III, 192,20
224. (= Avicenna's De Anima - Arabic Text, ed. F. Rahman [Oxford, 1959], 103,11)
225. and 273,11 (= Avicenna's De Anima - Arabic Text, 154,19).
226. Liber de philosophia prima sive scientia divina I-IV, 38,21
227. (= Ilāhiyyāt, 33,17).
228. Jolivet seems not to have noticed this mistranslation; Fazlur Rahman mentions it in his "Essence and existence in Avicenna," 5 (fn. 2), as does M. Khodeiri, "Lexique arabo-latin de la Métaphysique du Shifā'," MIDEO, 6 (1959-61): 309-24 at 316.
229. Van Riet reckons similitudinem derives from šabīha, although in my opinion tašbīh is just as easy to impute from the skeleton. Elsewhere in the Latin translation of the Ilāhiyyāt, bi-sababihi was mistranslated as comparationis - van Riet sees this as a result of misunderstanding it as nisbatahu: 188,80 (= Ilāhiyyāt, 166,4)
230. - and sababun as comparationes: 493,96 (= Ilāhiyyāt, 413,12).
231. This confusion also occurs in a passage of the Fī al-nafs, where sabab was translated into Latin as comparatio (ed. S. van Riet, Avicenna Latinus: Liber de anima seu sextus de naturalibus IV-V [Leiden, 1968], 20,79
232. = Avicenna's De Anima - Arabic Text, 174,14).
233. Liber de philosophia prima sive scientia divina I-IV, 125-138
234. Liber de philosophia prima V-X, 336,84-85
235. (= Ilāhiyyāt, 292,1).
236. In addition to the two instances alluded to by d'Alverny, say' is mistranslated as causa elsewhere in the Latin version of the Ilāhiyyāt: šay'ayni becomes duarum causarum at 99,62 (= Ilāhiyyāt, 86,3)
237. and sā'ir al-ašyā' becomes ceterae causae at 394,84 (= Ilāhiyyāt, 341,3).
238. In the Latin translation of al-Af'āl wa al-infi'ālāt, the fourth book of the Tcombining dot belowabī'iyyāt, šay' was also occasionally mistranslated as causa: ed. S. van Riet, Avicenna Latinus: Liber quartus naturalium de actionibus et passionibus qualitatum primarum (Leiden, 1989), 23,72
239. (= Kitāb al-šifā': al-Tcombining dot belowabī'iyyāt (4)/ al-Af'āl wa al-infi'ālāt, ed. M. Qāsim [Cairo, 1965], 213,15); 28,54
240. (= al-Af'āl wa al-infi'ālāt, 217,3);
241. and 79,73 (= al-Af'āl wa al-infi'ālāt, 256,6).
242. Conversely, asbāb was mistranslated in the Fī al-nafs as rebus at 21,82 (= Avicenna's De Anima - Arabic Text, 174,15)
243. and sabab as res at 21,83 (= Avicenna's De Anima - Arabie Text, 174,16).
244. The Latin Avicenna's "theory" that the final cause is prior to the efficient in terms of causality is cited explicitly by Henry of Ghent (d. 1293), Quodlibet XIII, ed. J. Decorte (Leuven, 1985), 106,71-78;
245. and by Duns Scotus (d. 1308), Quaestiones super libros Metaphysicorum Aristotelis I-IX, Bk. 5, Quest. 1, Para. 51.
246. in Metaph. 1, 12rC (Avicenna's Ilāhiyyāt 6 is mentioned at 12vE and 104rD), in Metaph. 3, 54rD-55rD
247. and in Metaph. 5, 105rA-D;
248. of Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), Scriptum super libros Sententiarum 1.8 (= E.M. Macierowski (ed. and trans.), Thomas Aquinas's Earliest Treatment of the Divine Essence [Binghamton, N.Y., 1998], 52,5-6);
249. in Metaph. 5 #775 and #782;
250. in Phys. 2.3, #186;
251. Summa contra gentiles 3.17.9;
252. of Siger of Brabant (d. 1283), Quaestiones in metaphysicam 5.9 (Cambridge MS), ed. A. Maurer 3-28 (Louvain, 1983), 203-4;
253. of John Buridan (d. 1358), in Metaph. 5, quaest. 1, fols 26a-27a;
254. of Albert of Saxony (d. 1390), Expositio et quaestiones in Aristotelis Physicam ad Albertum de Saxonia attributae I, ed. B. Patar (Louvain, 1999), 111,6-9;
255. and of Francisco Suarez (d. 1617), Disputationes metaphysicae Disp. XXVII, Sect. 2, paras 7-14
256. (= Dispitaciones metafisicas IV, eds and trans. S. Rabade Romeo, S. Caballero Sanchez and A. Puigcerver Zanon [Madrid, 1962], 172-77).
257. A. Maier ("Finalkausalität und Naturgesetz," in her Metaphysische Hintergründe der spätscholastischen Naturphilosophie [Rome, 1955], 273-335 at 212-13 and 302-3) discusses Avicenna's "theory" and relates it to Buridan's;
258. see also J. Biard, "Le système des causes dans la philosophie naturelle de Jean Buridan," in A. Hasnawi et al. (eds), Perspectives arabes et médiévales sur la tradition scientifique et philosophique grecque (Paris, 1997), 491-504 at 494-5.
259. This is not to say that Avicenna's concept of thingness was lost forever to European thinkers. In 1907 Horten translated the instances of šay'iyya in Ilāhiyyāt 6.5 correctly into German as Dingheit (M. Horten [trans.], Die Metaphysik Avicennas [Halle, 1907], 428-9)
260. and the instances of šay'iyya in the Naǧāt passage were translated by Carame into Latin as entitas: N. Carame (trans.), Avicennae metaphysices compendium [Rome, 1926], 34,21-35,19 (šay'iyya is rendered as entitas at 34,23 bis and 35,2.7).
261. e.g. Giles of Rome, introducing the section on al-Ġazālī from his Errors of the Philosophers: Algazel autem, ut plurimum Avicennam sequens et eius abbreviator existens...: Giles of Rome Errores Philosophorum, ed. J. Koch (Milwaukee, 1944), 38,4-5.
262. Ilāhiyyāt-i Dānišnāma-yi 'Alā'ī, ed. M. Mu'īn (Tehran, 1952), 54,9-10
263. and 55,2.
264. Maqāscombining dot belowid al-falāsifa, ed. S. Dunyā (Cairo, 1961), 190,10.13.
265. Interestingly, the Intentiones philosophorum - the Latin translation of the Maqāscombining dot belowid al falāsifa - contains several extra lines which are in neither the Dānišnāma nor the Arabic edition of the Maqāscombining dot belowid; these include the assertion "Indeed, the final cause is last in terms of existence, yet first and foremost in terms of intention" (Causa vero finalis est ultima in esse, et est prima et precedens in intencione = Algazel's Metaphysics, ed. J. Muckle [Toronto, 1933], 38,5-6).
266. My guess is that the extra line is a gloss by Avendauth or Gundissalinus, given their intimate involvement in translating both Ġazālī's Maqāscombining dot belowid and Avicenna's Ilāhiyyāt into Latin. S. Stern describes how this precept was applied to the arrangement of topics in philosophy books, in his "'The first in thought is the last in action': The history of a saying attributed to Aristotle," Journal of Semitic Studies, 7/2 (1962): 234-52.
267. Averroes in Phys. 2.3 and 2.7 (= Aristotelis opera cum Averois commentariis IV [Venice, 1562-1574], 59D-63K)
268. and Averroes in Metaph. 5.1 and 5.2 (= Tafsīr Mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a II, ed. M. Bouyges [Beirut, 1942], 475,1-481,8;
269. 483,7-487,8;
270. 490,1-497,6).
271. Kitāb al-milal wa al-nihcombining dot belowal II, ed. M. Badrān (Cairo, no date), 1092,6-1093,4.
272. In Part 3 I briefly discuss Michot's objections to giving the Išārāt a late date.
273. Kitāb al-išārāt wa al-tanbīhāt, ed. J. Forget (= Ibn Sīnā: Le Livre des théorèmes et des avertissements), (Leiden, 1892), 139,14-20.
274. Kitāb al-išārāt wa al-tanbīhāt, 140,6-9.
275. Kitāb lubāb al-išārāt, ed. 'A.S. 'Atcombining dot belowiyah (Cairo, 1936), 80,4-5.
276. Rāzī echoes this in his fully fledged commentary, Šarhcombining dot below al-išārāt (= Šarhcombining dot beloway al-išārāt, no ed. [Qum, 1983 or 1984], 193,36-194,20)
277. and in his Mabāhcombining dot belowitcombining minus sign below mašriqiyya (al-Mabāhcombining dot belowitcombining minus sign below al-mašriqiyya I, ed. M. al-Baġdādī [Beirut, 1990], 661,21-662,8).
278. e.g. Ilāhiyyāt 16,3;
279. 166,12;
280. 169,10 bis;
281. and 266,11.
282. The only instance of sababiyya I have come across in Avicenna's works is in his 'Uyūn al-hcombining dot belowikma (= Avicennae Fontes sapientiae, ed. 'A. Badawī [Cairo, 1954], 52,8). According to the editor's apparatus, however, the manuscripts contain many variant readings of sababiyya, and in any case, the term is not applied there specifically to the final cause but to the substrate (mawdcombining dot belowū'), end and agent collectively.
283. See aqdam bi al-'illiyya in Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya, 5v4 and 83v15
284. and in Kitāb al-šifā'/Mantcombining dot belowiq (5): al-Burhān, ed. A. 'Afīfī (Cairo, 1956), 297,10-11;
285. taqaddum fī al'illiyya in Avicenna's De Anima - Arabic Text, 230,3
286. and in Kitāb al-hidāya, ed. M. 'Abduh (Cairo, 1974), 241,1;
287. and qabla fī al-'illiyya in Hcombining dot belowikma 'Arūdcombining dot belowiyya, 5r13.
288. Tcombining dot belowūsī, Šarhcombining dot below al-išārāt, 193,31-194,6.
289. Compare similar uses of māhiyya by Avicenna's pupil Bahmanyār ibn al-Marzubān (al-Tahcombining dot belowscombining dot belowīl, ed. M. Mutcombining dot belowahharī [Tehran, 1997], 546,1-9)
290. as well as Sabzawārī (d. 1878) (Šarhcombining dot below ġurar al-farā'id (also known as Šarhcombining dot below-i manzcombining dot belowūmah), ed. M. Muhcombining dot belowaqqiq and T. Izutsu [Tehran, 1969], 161,11-12).
291. Al-Ta'līqāt 'alā ilāhiyyāt al-šifā', in Avicenna, al-Šifā' II (Tehran, 1886), 258,3.
292. In his Kitāb al-mašā'ir (= Le Livre des Pénétrations métaphysiques, ed. H. Corbin [Paris/Tehran, 1964], 7,13
293. and 20,19.20) Mullā Scombining dot belowadrā - in existentialist rather than commentator mode - chucks šay'iyya into the dustbin of terms denoting essence.
294. Al-Asfār al-arba'a II, ed. H.H. al-Āmuli (Tehran, 1995), 347,4-5.
295. Ed. 'A. Badawī, al-Ta'līqāt (Cairo, 1973), 128,17-19;
296. also see 158,14.
297. Phys. 2.3, 195a9-12
298. (= Aristcombining dot belowūtālīs: al-Tcombining dot belowabī'a 1, ed. 'A. Badawī [Cairo, 1964], 103,8-13).
299. This is echoed in Metaph. 5.2, 1013b9-12
300. (= Mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a II, 486,9-10). In Metaph. 1.3, 983a32, Aristotle asserts that the final cause is the "opposite" (antikeimenē) of the efficient.
301. For an example of this line of argument see Rāzī, Šarhcombining dot below al-išārāt, 194,1-6.
302. Phys. 2.7, 198a25
303. (= Tcombining dot belowabī'a 137,20-138,1)
304. and 198b3 (= Tcombining dot belowabī'a 140,12-13);
305. Metaph. 5.24, 1023a34
306. (= Tafsīr mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a II 655,9-10)
307. and 8.4, 1044a36-b1 (= Tafsīr mā ba'da al-tcombining dot belowabī'a II 1074,1-2);
308. and GC 1.7, 324b13-18.
309. Following Aristotle and his commentators, Avicenna uses the notion of perfection (entelekheia = kamāl and tamām) to link the intrinsic causality of the form and the extrinsic causality of the end; on this see my "Avicenna on perfection and the perfect," in R. Wisnovsky (ed.), Aspects of Avicenna, Princeton Papers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, forthcoming.
310. Al-Ta 'līqāt, 128,17-25.
311. Metaph. 1.2, 982b5-11.
312. At least this is how Alexander of Aphrodisias understood the above passage: in Metaph. 1.2 (CAG I), 14,3-4;
313. cp. in Metaph. 1.3 (CAG I) (ad 983a31-33), 22,7-13;
314. in Metaph. 3.2 (CAG I), 184,21-4;
315. in Metaph. 5.2 (CAG I), 346,14ff.
316. and 350,28-32.
317. Ilāhiyyāt, 300,7-9.
318. Despite Avicenna's bald assertion of the primacy of teleology, most scholarly interest in Avicenna's theory of causality has focused almost entirely on the efficient cause; see E. Gilson's two articles, "Avicenne et la notion de cause efficiente," Atti del XII Congresso Internazionale di Filosofia (Florence, 1960), 121-30
319. and "Notes pour l'histoire de la cause efficiente," AHDLMA, 29 (1962): 7-31;
320. and M. Marmura's two articles, "The metaphysics of efficient causality in Avicenna," in M. Marmura (ed.), Islamic Theology and Philosophy (Albany, 1984), 172-87
321. and "Avicenna on causal priority," in P. Morewedge (ed.), Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism (Delmar, N.Y., 1981), 65-83 (esp. 65-72).
322. Al-Mubāhcombining dot belowatcombining minus sign belowāt, ed. M. Bīdārfar (Qom, 1992), 116,15-117,2
323. (= Mubāhcombining dot belowatcombining minus sign belowa 5, #277);
324. compare 93,5-8 (= Mubāhcombining dot belowatcombining minus sign belowa 4, #177).
325. Concern about how the final cause's possible non-existence affects its causality is also evident in Awhcombining dot belowad al-Zamān Abū al-Barakāt al-Baġdādī, Kitāb al-mu'tabar fī al-hcombining dot belowikma III (Haydarabad, 1938-39), 52,12-53,5.
326. Michot (J. Michot, "La réponse d'Avicenne à Bahmanyār et al-Kirmānī," Le Muséon, 110/1-2 [1997], 143-221) has recently argued for an earlier dating of the Išārāt, based on evidence contained in Mubāhcombining dot belowatcombining minus sign belowa 3.
327. Given our current uncertainty about the Mubāhcombining dot belowatcombining minus sign belowāt - in particular, if they constitute a single work from a single period or are, as it seems to me, a grab-bag of many separate discussions recorded over Avicenna's lifetime - I feel Michot's conclusion remains highly tentative, and the traditional late dating of the Išārāt should be retained. Avicenna does use the term šay'iyya once in the Mantcombining dot belowiq of the Išārāt (Kitāb al-išārāt wa al-tanbīhat, 15,6-8; šay'iyya appears on line 8) but in the context of describing the function of the specific difference (al-fascombining dot belowl), not in the context of final and efficient causality.
328. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 101-12.
329. Compare al-Ǧūzǧānī's prologue to the Šifā' in Mantcombining dot belowiq (1), 2,13-3,17
330. and his description of the composition of the Šifā' contained in his biography of Avicenna (Gohlman, Life, 54,1-60,7).
331. Al-Samā' al-tcombining dot belowabī'ī min kitāb al-šifā', ed. J. Āl Yāsīn (Beirut, 1996), 114,3-11.