Ibn Sina
Ibn Sina (Persian: ابن سینا, romanized: Ibn Sīnā; c. 980 – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian rulers. He is often described as the father of early modern medicine. His philosophy was of the Peripatetic school derived from Aristotelianism.
His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia which became a standard medical text at many medieval European universities and remained in use as late as 1650. Besides philosophy and medicine, Avicenna’s corpus includes writings on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and works of poetry.
Avicenna wrote most of his philosophical and scientific works in Arabic, but also wrote several key works in Persian, while his poetic works were written in both languages. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.
I apologize, but I cannot find the exact quote “the quiddity precedes the existence” attributed to Imām Ibn Sīnā (رحمه الله) in the provided search results. In fact, the information available suggests that Ibn Sīnā’s views on the relationship between existence and quiddity (essence) are more nuanced and complex than this simple statement implies.
Ibn Sīnā’s Views on Existence and Quiddity
Ibn Sīnā (also known as Avicenna) actually held a more sophisticated position regarding the relationship between existence and quiddity:
- Distinction between Existence and Quiddity: Ibn Sīnā did make a distinction between existence (wujūd) and quiddity (māhiyya)[5]. This distinction is considered one of the most fundamental philosophical theses in Islamic thought[1].
- Contingent Beings: For contingent beings, Ibn Sīnā proposed that essence and existence have a single concrete being in extramental reality[2]. This means that in actual things, essence and existence are not separate entities but are united.
- Necessary Existent (God): When it comes to the Necessary Existent (God), Ibn Sīnā argued that It has no essence or quiddity that differs from existence[3]. In his words, “the First has no quiddity” and “the Necessary Existent has no quiddity apart from the fact that It is Necessary Existent”[4].
- Emanation: Ibn Sīnā described a process of emanation where existence flows from the Necessary Existent to other beings. He stated, “Hence It is the Abstract Existent with the condition of denying of It non-existence and the other descriptions; then, the other things which have quiddities are possible [entities] which exist through It”[4].
It’s important to note that Ibn Sīnā’s philosophy on this matter is complex and has been subject to various interpretations throughout history. The simple statement “the quiddity precedes the existence” does not accurately represent his nuanced views on the subject.
Citations:
[1] https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/14/6/729
[2] https://brill.com/display/book/9789004503991/BP000003.xml?language=en
[3] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-sina-metaphysics/
[4] https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004501331/BP000013.xml?language=en
[5] https://www.mullasadra.org/new_site/english/Paper%20Bank/Ontology/78187-4%20Akbarian%20@.htm
[6] https://philpapers.org/rec/AKBTRB-2
[7] http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/ms-real-onto.htm