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Book
Avicenna
(2010)
  • Jon McGinnis, University of Missouri - St. Louis
Abstract
The aim of the present work is threefold. One, it intends to place the thought of Avicenna within its proper historical context, whether the philosophical-scientific tradition inherited from the Greeks or the indigenous influences coming from the medieval Islamic world. Thus, in addition to a substantive introductory chapter on the Greek and Arabic sources and influences to which Avicenna was heir, the historical and philosophical context central to Avicenna’s own thought is provided in order to assess and appreciate his achievement in the specific fields treated in that chapter. Two, the present volume aims to offer a philosophical survey of Avicenna’s entire system of thought ranging from his understanding of the interrelation of logic, physics, psychology, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and medicine. The emphasis here is on how, using a relatively small handful of novel insights, Avicenna was not only able to address a whole series of issues that had troubled earlier philosophers working in both the ancient Hellenistic and medieval Islamic world, but also how those insights fundamentally changed the direction philosophy took, certainly in the Islamic East, but even in the Jewish and Christian milieus. Three, the present volume will provide philosophers, historians of science, and students of medieval thought with a starting point from which to assess the place, significance, and influence of Avicenna and his philosophy within the history of ideas.
Keywords
  • Avicenna,
  • Ibn Sīnā,
  • Islamic philosophy,
  • Arabic philosophy,
  • medieval philosophy,
  • history of philosophy,
  • medieval science,
  • history of science
Publication Date
2010
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Series
Great medieval thinkers.
ISBN
978-0-19-533147-9
DOI
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331479.001.0001
Citation Information
Jon McGinnis. Avicenna. New York(2010) p. xiv - 300
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jon-mcginnis/1/