Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa)
An encyclopedia from logic to metaphysics – with the distinction between essence and existence.
Introduction
The largest of Avicenna’s philosophical works, an Arabic encyclopedia in four parts: logic, natural philosophy (including psychology), mathematics (geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy) and metaphysics. The title refers to the healing of the soul from ignorance. Avicenna does not comment on Aristotle line by line but reorganises the material in his own order and with his own arguments. The psychology contains his “floating man” thought experiment. Parts were translated into Latin in Toledo in the twelfth century, among them the books on the soul and on metaphysics, and influenced scholastics such as Albert the Great and Duns Scotus. Later Islamic philosophy and theology took the Shifa as a reference work.
Connections
Builds on
- On the Soul (De anima)c. 350 BCE · Aristotle
- Metaphysicsc. 340 BCE · Aristotle
Taken up in
- Remarks and Admonitions (al-Isharat wa-l-tanbihat)c. 1030 · Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
- Hayy ibn Yaqzanc. 1175 · Ibn Tufayl
- The Guide for the Perplexedc. 1190 · Maimonides
- Summa contra Gentilesc. 1265 · Thomas Aquinas
- Summa theologiae1273 · Thomas Aquinas
- Ordinatioc. 1300 · John Duns Scotus
- The Book of Blazing Brands (Kitab al-Qabasat)c. 1624 · Mir Damad
- The Four Journeys (al-Asfar al-arbaʿa)c. 1628 · Mulla Sadra
Criticized in
- The Incoherence of the Philosophers1095 · al-Ghazali
- The Philosophy of Illumination (Hikmat al-ishraq)1186 · Suhrawardi
- Long Commentaries on Aristotlec. 1190 · Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
- The Refutation of the Logicians (al-Radd ʿala al-mantiqiyyin)c. 1310 · Ibn Taymiyya
More works by Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
- c. 1025The Canon of Medicine
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