The Book of Healing
Author | Natural Philosophy |
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Published | 1027 (Arabic) |
Part of a series on |
Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) |
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The Book of Healing (
This work is Ibn Sina's major work on science and philosophy, and is intended to "cure" or "heal" ignorance of the soul. Thus, despite its title, it is not concerned with medicine, in contrast to Avicenna's earlier The Canon of Medicine (5 vols.) which is, in fact, medical.
The book is divided into four parts:
Sciences
Astronomy
In
.Chemistry
Ibn Sina's theory on the formation of
Earth sciences
Toulmin and Goodfield (1965), commented on Avicenna's contribution to geology:[5]
Around A.D. 1000, Avicenna was already suggesting a hypothesis about the origin of mountain ranges, which in the Christian world, would still have been considered quite radical eight hundred years later
- Paleontology
Ibn Sina also contributed to
"If what is said concerning the petrifaction of animals and plants is true, the cause of this (phenomenon) is a powerful mineralizing and petrifying virtue which arises in certain stony spots, or emanates suddenly from the earth during earthquake and subsidences, and petrifies whatever comes into contact with it. As a matter of fact, the petrifaction of the bodies of plants and animals is not more extraordinary than the transformation of waters."
Psychology
In The Book of Healing, Avicenna discusses the
He also writes that strong
- percepts;
- the imaginative faculty, which conserves the perceptual images;
- imagination, which acts upon these images by combining and separating them, serving as the seat of the practical intellect;
- wahm (instinct), which perceives qualities (such as good and bad, love and hate, etc.) and forms the basis of a person's character whether or not influenced by reason; and
- ma'ni (intentions), which conserve all these notions in memory.
Avicenna also gives
Avicenna often used psychological methods to treat his patients.
Philosophy
In the medieval Islamic world, due to Avicenna's successful reconciliation of Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism along with Kalam, Avicennism eventually became the leading school of early Islamic philosophy by the 12th century, with Avicenna becoming a central authority on philosophy.[8]
Avicennism was also influential in
Logic
Avicenna discussed the topic of
He wrote on the hypothetical syllogism[2][3] and on the propositional calculus, which were both part of the Stoic logical tradition.[12] He developed an original theory of “temporally modalized” syllogistic[13] and made use of inductive logic, such as the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to the scientific method.[2]
Metaphysics
Early
Following al-Farabi's lead, Avicenna initiated a full-fledged inquiry into the question of
Avicenna's proof for the
Philosophy of science
In the "Al-Burhan" ('On Demonstration') section of the book, Avicenna discusses the
Sections of the text
Critical editions of the Arabic text have been published in Cairo, 1952–83, originally under the supervision of Ibrahim Madkour; some of these editions are given below.[1]
- Al-Mantiq (Logic), Part 1, al-Ahwani, Cairo: al-Matba’ah al-Amiriyah, 1952. (Volume I, Part 1 of al-Shifa’.)
- Al-‘Ibarah (Interpretation), edited by M. El-Khodeiri. Cairo: Dar al-Katib al-Arabi, 1970. (Volume 1, Part 3 of al-Shifa’.)
- Al-Qiyas (Syllogism), edited by S. Zayed and I. Madkour, Cairo: Organisme General des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1964. (Volume I, Part 4 of al-Shifa’.)
- Shehaby, N., trans. 1973. The Propositional Logic of Ibn Sina, Dordrecht: Reidel.
- Al-Burhan (Demonstration), edited by A. E. Affifi. Cairo: Organisme General des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1956. (Volume I, Part 5 of al-Shifa’.)
- Al-Jadal (Dialectic), edited by A.F. Al-Ehwany. Cairo: Organisme General des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1965. (Volume I, Part 6 of al-Shifa’.)
- Al-Khatabah (Rhetoric), edited by S. Salim, Cairo: Imprimerie Nationale, 1954. (Volume I, Part 8 of al-Shifa’.)
- Al-Ilahiyat (Theology), edited by M.Y. Moussa, S. Dunya and S. Zayed, Cairo: Organisme General des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1960;
- R. M. Savory and D. A. Agius, ed. and trans. 1984. ‘Ibn Sina on Primary Concepts in the Metaphysics of al-Shifa’, in Logos Islamikos, Toronto, Ont.: Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies;
- Anawati, G. C., trans. 1978, 1985. "La metaphysique du Shifa’ [The Metaphysics of al-Shifa’]," (Etudes Musulmanes 21 and 27). Paris: Vrin. (Vol. I, Books 1-5; Vol. II. Books 6-10.)
- Marmura, Michael E. 2005. The Metaphysics of the Healing. A parallel English-Arabic text, with introduction and annotation by M. E. Marmura. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press.
- Al-Nafs (The Soul), edited by G. C. Anawati and S. Zayed. Cairo: Organisme General des Imprimeries Gouvernementales, 1975;
- Rahman, F., ed. 1959. Avicenna's De Anima, Being the Psychological Part of Kitab al-Shifa’, London: Oxford University Press, 1959. (Volume 1, part 6 of al-Shifa’.)
In English Translation
BYU's Islamic Translation Series includes two parts of The Healing.
- Avicenna (2005). The Metaphysics of The Healing. Translated by Marmura, Michael E. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.
- Avicenna (2010). The Physics of The Healing: A Parallel English-Arabic Text in Two Volumes. Translated by McGinnis, Jon. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.
See also
- Avicenna
- Islamic Golden Age
- Early Islamic philosophy
- Islamic science
- Medical literature
References
- ^ a b "Ibn Sina Abu 'Ali Al-Husayn". Muslimphilosophy.com. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-513580-6. p. 155.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-01929-X. p. 31.
- Hossein Nasr(December 2003), "The achievements of IBN SINA in the field of science and his contributions to its philosophy", Islam & Science, 1
- ^ Toulmin, Stephen. and June Goodfield. 1965. The Ancestry of Science: The Discovery of Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 64. (cf. The Contribution of Ibn Sina to the development of Earth sciences Archived 2010-03-14 at the Wayback Machine.)
- ISBN 0-226-73103-0
- ^ Journal of Religion & Health43(4):357–77.
- doctoral dissertation). University of Notre Dame. pp. 80-81.
- ^ "The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Avicenna/Ibn Sina (CA. 980-1037)". Iep.utm.edu. 2013-08-02. Retrieved 2014-08-05.
- ^ I. M. Bochenski (1961), "On the history of the history of logic", A history of formal logic, p. 4-10. Translated by I. Thomas, Notre Dame, Indiana University Press. (cf. Ancient Islamic (Arabic and Persian) Logic and Ontology)
- ^ Richard F. Washell (1973), "Logic, Language, and Albert the Great", Journal of the History of Ideas 34 (3), pp. 445–450 [445].
- ISBN 0-415-01929-X.
- ^ "History of logic: Arabic logic." Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ "Islam". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007. Retrieved November 27, 2007.
- ^ Steve A. Johnson (1984), "Ibn Sina's Fourth Ontological Argument for God's Existence", The Muslim World 74 (3-4), 161–171.
- .
- S2CID 30864273
External links
- Ibn Sina (Avicenna) — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Avicenna on the subject and the object of metaphysics with a list of English translations of his philosophical works
- (AR) Kitab al-Shifa fi [kidha] tariff huquq al-Mustafa (in Arabic) – via archive.org.