Overview
The eleventh-century philosopher and physician Abu Ali ibn Sina (d. A.D. 1037) was known in the West by his Latinized name Avicenna. An analysis of the sources and evolution of Avicenna's metaphysics, this book focuses on the answers he and his predecessors gave to two fundamental pairs of questions: what is the soul and how does it cause the body; and what is God and how does He cause the world? To respond to these challenges, Avicenna invented new concepts and distinctions and reinterpreted old ones. The author concludes that Avicenna's innovations are a turning point in the history of metaphysics. Avicenna's metaphysics is the culmination of a period of synthesis during which philosophers fused together a Neoplatonic project (reconciling Plato with Aristotle) with a Peripatetic project (reconciling Aristotle with himself). Avicenna also stands at the beginning of a period during which philosophers sought to integrate the Arabic version of the earlier synthesis with Islamic doctrinal theology (kalam). Avicenna's metaphysics significantly influenced European scholastic thought, but it had an even more profound impact on Islamic intellectual history-the philosophical problems and opportunities associated with the Avicennian synthesis continued to be debated up to the end of the nineteenth century.
Full Product Details
Author: Robert Wisnovsky
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.80cm
, Length: 23.20cm
Weight: 0.907kg
ISBN: 9780801441783
ISBN 10: 0801441781
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 30 July 2003
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Awaiting stock
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.
Reviews
Robert Wisnovsky's Avicenna's Metaphysics in Context is arguably one of the most important works to come out on Avicenna to date. Wisnovsky has a superb mastery of the philological, historical, and philosophical tools necessary for tackling some of the most central and deepest issues in Avicenna's philosophy. His study is history of ideas done at its best. The work is must reading for anyone studying Avicenna today and likewise will be of interest to those with broader interests, whether in Arabic philosophy and intellectual history, Hellenistic and Neoplatonic studies, medieval Latin philosophy, or the history of philosophy in general. Jon McGinnis, University of Missouri St Louis, Journal of the American Oriental Society 124:2 (2004)
Robert Wisnovsky's Avicenna's Metaphysics in Context is arguably one of the most important works to come out on Avicenna to date. Wisnovsky has a superb mastery of the philological, historical, and philosophical tools necessary for tackling some of the most central and deepest issues in Avicenna's philosophy. His study is history of ideas done at its best. The work is must reading for anyone studying Avicenna today and likewise will be of interest to those with broader interests, whether in Arabic philosophy and intellectual history, Hellenistic and Neoplatonic studies, medieval Latin philosophy, or the history of philosophy in general. -Jon McGinnis, University of Missouri-St Louis, Journal of the American Oriental Society 124:2 (2004)
Author Information
Robert Wisnovsky is Associate Professor and Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University.
