The Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Reception of Avicenna's Metaphysics

Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Amos Bertolacci, Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Amos Bertolacci

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9783110215762
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Medieval & Renaissance Philosophy

Avicenna's Metaphysics (in Arabic: Ilâhiyyât ) is the most important and influential metaphysical treatise of classical and medieval times after Aristotle. This volume presents studies on its direct and indirect influence in Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin culture from the time of its composition in the early eleventh century until the sixteenth century. Among the philosophical topics which receive particular attention are the distinction between essence and existence, the theory of universals, the concept of God as the necessary being and the theory of emanation. It is shown how authors such as Averroes, Abraham ibn Daud, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus react to Avicenna's metaphysical theories. The studies also address the philological and historical circumstances of the textual tradition in three different medieval cultures. The studies are written by a distinguished international team of contributors, who convened in 2008 to discuss their research in the Villa Vigoni, Italy.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction
• Al-Lawkarīl’s Reception of Ibn Sīnā’s Ilāhiyyāt
• Essence and Existence in the Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Islamic East (Mašrig): A Sketch
• Fārābī in the Reception of Avicenna’s Metaphysics: Averroes against Avicenna on Being and Unity
• Avicenna and his Commentators on Human and Divine Self-Intellection
• Essence and Existence. Thirteenth-Century Perspectives in Arabic-Islamic Philosophy and Theology
• Avicenna’s Metaphysics in the Medieval Hebrew Philosophical Tradition
• ‘Happy is he whose children are boys’: Abraham Ibn Daud and Avicenna on Evil
• Possible Hebrew Quotations of the Metaphysical Section of Avicenna’s Oriental Philosophy and Their Historical Meaning
• On the Latin Reception of Avicenna’s Metaphysics before Albertus Magnus : An Attempt at Periodization
• Avicenna’s ‘Giver of Forms’ in Latin Philosophy, Especially in the Works of Albertus Magnus
• Avicenna and Aquinas on Form and Generation
• Immateriality and Separation in Avicenna and Thomas Aquinas
• Two Senses of ‘Common’. Avicenna’s Doctrine of Essence and Aquinas’s View on Individuation
• On the Latin Reception of Avicenna’s Theory of Individuation
• Scotus and Avicenna on What it is to Be a Thing
• Index of Avicenna’s Works with Passages Cited
• Index of Names