Avicenne
Ce qu’est une chose et si elle existe sont deux questions différentes – et seul Dieu existe nécessairement, tout le reste dépend de lui.
Repères
Médecin et philosophe : sa distinction entre essence et existence a marqué la métaphysique en Orient comme en Occident.
Idées clés
- Essence et existence
- L’homme volant
- L’existant nécessaire
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Influence
Influences reçues de 4
Aristote
influencé par ✓
Avicenna’s Book of the Cure (al-Shifa) follows the order of Aristotle’s corpus from logic to metaphysics, but reworks it into a system of his own. Ibn Sina, al-Shifa; D. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (1988; 2nd ed. 2014); SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Aristote › 384–322 av. J.-C.
Plotin
influencé par ✓
Avicenna wrote notes on the Theology of Aristotle, the Arabic Plotinus, and his scheme of emanation from the Necessary Existent continues Plotinian Neoplatonism. P. Adamson, “Non-Discursive Thought in Avicenna’s Commentary on the Theology of Aristotle”, in J. McGinnis (ed.), Interpreting Avicenna (2004); SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Attestation: aussi dans Wikidata · Wikidata
Plotin › 204–270
Al-Kindi
influencé par contesté ✓
Avicenna built on the Arabic Neoplatonic Aristotle shaped in al-Kindi’s circle, including the Theology of Aristotle; a direct influence of al-Kindi himself is disputed. P. Adamson, The Arabic Plotinus (2002); P. Adamson, Al-Kindi (2007); SEP “al-Kindi”
Al-Kindi › v. 801–873
Al-Fârâbî
influencé par ✓
In his autobiography Avicenna recalls that he understood Aristotle’s Metaphysics, read some forty times, only through al-Farabi’s treatise On the Aims of the Metaphysics. Ibn Sina, autobiography, tr. W. E. Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina (1974); D. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (1988); SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Al-Fârâbî › v. 872–950
A influencé 17
Moïse Maïmonide
a influencé ✓
Maimonides took over Avicenna’s distinction between necessary and possible existence for a proof of God and held that existence is an accident of essence (Guide, c. 1190). Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed (c. 1190), tr. S. Pines (1963), with Pines’s introduction; SEP “Maimonides”
Attestation: aussi dans Wikidata · Wikidata
Moïse Maïmonide › 1138–1204
Albert le Grand
a influencé ✓
Albert drew on Avicenna’s paraphrases of Aristotle, especially his account of the inner senses and the intellect, throughout his commentaries such as De anima. Albertus Magnus, De anima; De homine; SEP “Albert the Great”; SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Albert le Grand › v. 1200–1280
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
a influencé ✓
Al-Tusi’s commentary on Avicenna’s Pointers and Reminders (completed 1246) defended him against Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s objections and shaped how later scholars read him. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Hall mushkilat al-Isharat (1246); SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Attestation: aussi dans Wikidata · Wikidata
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi › 1201–1274
Thomas d’Aquin
a influencé ✓
In On Being and Essence (c. 1255) Aquinas took up Avicenna’s distinction of essence and existence, citing him often; elsewhere he rejected his necessary emanation of the world. Thomas Aquinas, De ente et essentia (c. 1255); Summa theologiae I q. 47 a. 1; SEP “Thomas Aquinas”; SEP “Ibn Sina [Avicenna]”
Attestation: aussi dans Wikidata · Wikidata
Thomas d’Aquin › v. 1225–1274
Jean Duns Scot
a influencé
Scotus took over Avicenna’s common nature, ‘horseness is just horseness’, indifferent to universality and singularity, and his view of being as the intellect’s first object. Avicenna, Metaphysics (al-Ilāhiyyāt) V.1; Duns Scotus, Ordinatio II d. 3 p. 1 q. 1; I d. 3; SEP “John Duns Scotus”
Attestation: aussi dans InPhO · InPhO
Jean Duns Scot › v. 1266–1308
Hossein Nasr
a influencé ✓
Nasr presented Avicenna as the master of the Peripatetic school in Three Muslim Sages and studied his cosmology in An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines (both 1964). S. H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages (1964); An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines (1964)
Attestation: aussi dans Wikidata · Wikidata
Hossein Nasr › né(e) en 1933
Tout afficher (17)Afficher moins
Ibn Tufayl
a influencé
Ibn Tufayl took the name Hayy ibn Yaqzan from Avicenna’s allegory and presented his tale as unveiling the ‘Oriental philosophy’ Avicenna had mentioned. Ibn Tufayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, introduction, tr. L. E. Goodman (1972); SEP “Ibn Tufayl”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Ibn Tufayl › v. 1105–1185
Sohrawardi
a influencé
Suhrawardi was trained in Avicenna’s philosophy and wrote Peripatetic works such as The Intimations (al-Talwihat) before setting illumination against it as an alternative. Suhrawardi, al-Talwihat; SEP “Suhrawardi”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Sohrawardi › 1154–1191
Athir al-Din al-Abhari
a influencé
Al-Abhari’s Guide to Philosophy presents logic, physics and metaphysics largely in Ibn Sina’s terms; its metaphysics, like that of al-Katibi’s Philosophy of the Source, depends closely on Ibn Sina and carried his doctrines into the madrasas. SEP “Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics” (A. Bertolacci); al-Abhari, Hidāyat al-ḥikma
Attestation: brouillon IA
Athir al-Din al-Abhari › v. 1194–1265
Najm al-Din al-Katibi
a influencé
Al-Katibi’s Shamsiyya builds on Ibn Sina’s temporal modal logic, though it examines thirteen modal propositions where Ibn Sina had examined six, and his Philosophy of the Source presents metaphysics largely in Ibn Sina’s terms. T. Street, The Rules of Logic (2024); SEP “Arabic and Islamic Metaphysics”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Najm al-Din al-Katibi › 1203–1277
Roger Bacon
a influencé
Bacon ranked Avicenna highest among Aristotle’s followers and, with him, held the agent intellect to be separate from the soul – for Bacon, God himself (Opus maius, 1267). Roger Bacon, Opus maius (1267); É. Gilson, ‘Les sources gréco-arabes de l’augustinisme avicennisant’, AHDLMA 4 (1929); SEP “Roger Bacon”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Roger Bacon › v. 1219–1292
Qotb al-Din Chirazi
a influencé
Qutb al-Din wrote a five-volume commentary on the general part of Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine and taught the Canon and the Healing in Syria; his Pearly Crown presents Avicennan philosophy in Persian. F. J. Ragep, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (2007); J. Walbridge (1992)
Attestation: brouillon IA
Qotb al-Din Chirazi › 1236–1311
Mir Damad
a influencé
Mir Damad developed Avicenna’s distinction of time, perpetuity (dahr) and eternity into his doctrine that the world is ‘perpetually originated’ (Kitab al-Qabasat). Mir Damad, Kitab al-Qabasat; Encyclopaedia Iranica “Mir Damad”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Mir Damad › v. 1561–1631
Molla Sadra Chirazi
a influencé
Mulla Sadra started from Avicenna’s distinction of existence and essence, but turned it into the primacy of existence and its gradation (al-Asfar al-arbaa). Mulla Sadra, al-Hikma al-mutaaliya fi l-asfar al-arbaa; SEP “Mulla Sadra”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Molla Sadra Chirazi › v. 1572–1640
Hadi Sabzavari
a influencé
Sabzawari wrote marginal notes on the metaphysics of Ibn Sina’s Healing, printed with those of Mulla Sadra and Mir Damad. Ibn Sina, al-Shifāʾ, al-Ilāhiyyāt, with marginal notes by Mulla Sadra, Mir Damad, Khwansari, Sabzawari and others, ed. H. Naji Isfahani (Tehran 2004)
Attestation: brouillon IA
Hadi Sabzavari › 1797–1873
Djemâl ad-Dîn al-Afghâni
a influencé
Schooled in the philosophical tradition of Avicenna, al-Afghani taught Islamic philosophy, including Avicenna’s works, in Cairo in the 1870s to a circle that included Muhammad Abduh. N. R. Keddie, Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”: A Political Biography (1972); A. Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age 1798–1939 (1962)
Attestation: brouillon IA
Djemâl ad-Dîn al-Afghâni › 1838–1897
Fazlur Rahman
a influencé
Fazlur Rahman wrote his Oxford doctorate on Avicenna’s psychology, published Avicenna’s Psychology (1952) and edited the De anima of the Book of the Cure (1959). F. Rahman, Avicenna’s Psychology (1952); Avicenna’s De Anima (1959)
Attestation: brouillon IA
Fazlur Rahman › 1919–1988
Critique
Critiques reçues de 9
Al-Ghazali a influencé
a influencé
Al-Ghazali summarised Avicenna’s philosophy in The Aims of the Philosophers and took over much of his logic and psychology, even while condemning three of his doctrines. al-Ghazali, Maqasid al-falasifa (c. 1094); F. Griffel, Al-Ghazali’s Philosophical Theology (2009); SEP “al-Ghazali”
Attestation: brouillon IA
critiqué par
Al-Ghazali’s Incoherence of the Philosophers attacked Avicenna’s system on twenty points, among them the world’s eternity, emanation and the necessary link between cause and effect (1095). al-Ghazālī, Tahāfut al-falāsifa (1095), tr. M. Marmura, 2000; SEP “al-Ghazali”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Al-Ghazali › 1058–1111
Muhammad al-Shahrastani
critiqué par
In Struggling with the Philosopher al-Shahrastani attacked Ibn Sina’s division of being, his proof of the one Necessary Existent, his account of God’s knowledge and the eternity of the world. al-Shahrastānī, Muṣāraʿat al-falāsifa; W. Madelung and T. Mayer, Struggling with the Philosopher (2001)
Attestation: brouillon IA
Muhammad al-Shahrastani › v. 1086–1153
Averroès
critiqué par
Averroes faulted Avicenna for making existence an accident added to essence and for departing from Aristotle in concessions to the theologians (Tahafut al-tahafut). Ibn Rushd, Tahāfut al-tahāfut; Long Commentary on the Metaphysics; SEP “Ibn Rushd [Averroes]”
Attestation: brouillon IA
Averroès › 1126–1198
Fakhr ad-Dîn ar-Râzî a influencé
a influencé
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi organised his Eastern Investigations (al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya) around Avicenna’s philosophy and kept much of its framework even where he criticised it. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya; A. Shihadeh, “From al-Ghazali to al-Razi”, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 15 (2005)
Attestation: aussi dans InPhO · InPhO
critiqué par
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s commentary on Avicenna’s Pointers and Reminders raised so many objections that al-Tusi called it a ‘wounding’ (jarh) rather than a commentary (sharh). Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Sharḥ al-Ishārāt; Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Ḥall mushkilāt al-Ishārāt, preface
Attestation: brouillon IA
Fakhr ad-Dîn ar-Râzî › v. 1150–1210
Saad al-Din al-Taftazani
critiqué par
Al-Taftazani replied to Ibn Sina’s argument that essences cannot be made by an agent, distinguishing between saying that four would not be even and that four would be non-even. SEP “Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Essence and Existence”; al-Taftazani, Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid
Attestation: brouillon IA
Saad al-Din al-Taftazani › 1322–1390
Ibn Khaldoun
critiqué par
Ibn Khaldun argued that the metaphysics of the philosophers, among whom he named al-Farabi and Avicenna, cannot reach certainty about what lies beyond experience (Muqaddima VI, 1377). Ibn Khaldūn, al-Muqaddima (1377), ch. VI, ‘A refutation of philosophy’, tr. F. Rosenthal, 1958, vol. III
Attestation: brouillon IA
Ibn Khaldoun › 1332–1406
Tout afficher (9)Afficher moins
Al-Biruni
critiqué par
Al-Biruni objected to Ibn Sina’s answers in defence of Aristotle and pressed his questions again; Ibn Sina’s student al-Maʿsumi replied in his place. al-Asʾila wa-l-ajwiba, ed. Nasr and Mohaghegh (1972); Berjak and Iqbal (2003–06)
Attestation: brouillon IA
Al-Biruni › 973–1048
Ibn Taymiyya
critiqué par
Ibn Taymiyya rejected Avicenna’s God as a Necessary Existent without attributes and the Avicennan logic on which the philosophers built (Dar taarud; al-Radd ala al-mantiqiyyin). Ibn Taymiyya, Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql; al-Radd ʿalā al-manṭiqiyyīn; J. Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya, 2019
Attestation: brouillon IA
Ibn Taymiyya › 1263–1328
Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri
critiqué par
Al-Jabri cast Avicenna, above all his ‘Oriental philosophy’, as turning Arabic philosophy towards gnostic irrationalism, against the rationalism of Averroes in the Maghreb (Nahnu wa-l-turath, 1980). M. A. al-Jābirī, Naḥnu wa-l-turāth, 1980; Arab-Islamic Philosophy: A Contemporary Critique, tr. 1999
Attestation: brouillon IA
Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri › 1935–2010
Critiques adressées à 1
Porphyre de Tyr influencé par
influencé par
Avicenna opened the logic of the Book of the Cure with an Introduction (al-Madkhal) that follows Porphyry’s Isagoge on the five predicables. Ibn Sina, al-Shifa, al-Madkhal; SEP “Porphyry”
Attestation: brouillon IA
a critiqué
Avicenna rejected the doctrine, which he attributed to Porphyry, that the knowing intellect becomes identical with what it knows (Shifa, De anima V.6; al-Isharat). Ibn Sīnā, al-Shifāʾ: al-Nafs V.6; al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt, namaṭ 7
Attestation: brouillon IA
Porphyre de Tyr › v. 234–305
Œuvres
- v. 1025Le Canon de la médecine
Une somme systématique de la médecine grecque et arabe ; dans la traduction latine de Gérard de Crémone, elle resta en Europe un manuel universitaire jusqu’au XVIIe siècle.
Une encyclopédie allant de la logique à la métaphysique – avec la distinction entre essence et existence.
Sa dernière somme sous une forme brève et allusive – logique, physique et métaphysique, s’achevant sur les stations des mystiques ; objet d’une longue tradition de commentaires.
Position
Avicenne a construit le système que la philosophie et la théologie islamiques ultérieures ont pris pour principal point de référence. Il distinguait nettement entre ce qu’une chose est (son essence) et le fait qu’elle existe : aucune créature n’existe par son essence, chacune a donc besoin d’une cause. Cela conduit à Dieu comme l’Être nécessaire, dont l’essence est d’exister. Son expérience de pensée de l’« homme volant » – une personne créée en plein ciel, sans aucune sensation, saurait pourtant qu’elle existe – soutient que l’âme se connaît directement et se distingue du corps. Son Canon de la médecine fut un manuel de référence pendant des siècles, et sa métaphysique a marqué Thomas d’Aquin, Duns Scot et toute la tradition islamique ultérieure.
Vie et contexte
Ibn Sina naquit en 980 près de Boukhara et était déjà un médecin réputé alors qu’il était encore adolescent. Il servit comme médecin et ministre dans diverses cours persanes, dont Hamadan et Ispahan, souvent en des temps troublés, écrivant la nuit et même en voyage. Il mourut à Hamadan en 1037, laissant une œuvre immense en philosophie et en médecine.
Autres œuvres principales
- Kitāb al-Najāt (traduction propre : « Livre du salut », v. 1027)
Apparaît dans
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