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Ibn Sina's Remarks and Admonitions: Physics and Metaphysics

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Ibn Sina's Remarks and Admonitions: Physics and Metaphysics Ibn Sina’s Remarks & Admonitions: Physics & Metaphysics AN AN ALYSIS AN D ANNO TATED TRANSLATION Shams Inati Ibn Sina’s Remarks and Admonitions: Physics and Metaphysics Ibn Sina’s Remarks and Admonitions: Physics and Metaphysics an analysis and annotated translation Shams Inati Columbia University Press Ne w York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Avicenna, 980–1037. [Isharat wa-al-tanbihat. Part 2–3. English] Ibn Sina’s Remarks and admonitions: physics and metaphysics: an analysis and annotated translation/ Shams C. Inati. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-16616-4 (cloth: alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-231-53742-1 (e-book) 1. Islamic philosophy—Early works to 1800. 2. Philosophy, Medieval. 3. Physics—Early works to 1800. 4. Metaphysics—Early works to 1800. I. Inati, Shams Constantine. II. Title. B751.I62E5 2014 181'.5—dc23 2013041367 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid- free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. To my sister, Aminy Inati Audi, who has shared my pas- sion for knowledge about the universe and the human place in it and who has supported my intellectual efforts and inspired me with her limitless determination, deep wisdom, and boundless love for all things. Contents Preface 26 Analysis of the Text 1 PART TWO: PHYSICS 57 Prologue 59 First Class: On the Substance of Bodies 1. Delusion and Remark: On the Composition of Bodies 59 2. Delusion and Remark: Another Theory Concerning the Composition of Bodies of Infinite Parts 60 3. Admonition: Evidence for the Unsoundness of the Above Theories 61 4. A Follow-up: On the Infinity of the Imaginative Division of Bodies 61 5. Admonition: Regarding Movement and Time as Also Divisible to Infinity 62 6. Remark: Regarding the Difference Between That Which Is Continuous in Itself and That Which Has the Capacity for Continuity 62 viii—Contents 7. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Unity of the Nature of Corporeal Extension in Itself 62 8. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Ways in Which Disjunction Is Possible for That Which Is Continuous 63 9. Admonition: Concerning Why a Species for Which It Is Possible to Have a Plurality of Individuals May Be Obstructed from Having More Than One 63 10. A Follow-up: Concerning the First Matter as That Which in Itself Has No Quantity and in Which Any Quantity Can Subsist 64 11. Remark: Concerning the Evidence for the Finitude of Distances 64 12. Remark: Concerning the Necessary Accompaniment of Shape to Corporeal Extension 65 13. Delusion and Remark: Concerning the Cause of the Shape of the Sphere 66 14. Admonition: Concerning the Cause of Position 67 15. Admonition: Concerning the Necessity of Form for Position 67 16. A Follow-up: Conclusion Regarding the Necessity of Corporeal Form for Matter 68 17. Admonition: Concerning Matter as Also Not Free from Forms Other Than Corporeal Ones 68 18. Remark: Concerning the Fact That, in Addition to Matter, There Is Necessity for External Determinants of the Corporeal Form 69 19. Delusion and Admonition: On the Joining of Matter and Form as Necessary for the Actual Subsistence of Matter 69 20. Remark: On the Departure of Forms from One Matter to Another 69 21. Remark: Concerning the Demonstration That the Corporeal Forms Cannot Be Independent or Intermediary Causes of Matter 70 Contents—ix 22. Delusion and Admonition: Refutation of the Claim That Matter Is the Cause of the Existence of the Form 71 23. Remark: Concerning the Subsistance of Matter During the Process of Form Substitution 71 24. Remark: Concerning the Priority of Form to Matter 71 25. Remark: On the Manner in Which Form Is Prior 72 26. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Priority in Essence of the Cause to the Effect Despite the Temporal Simultaneity of the Two 72 27. A Follow-up: The Inference to Be Drawn Regarding the Similarity Between the Priority of the Form Which Is Inseparable from Its Matter and That Which Is Separable 73 28. Admonition: The Priority of the Body to the Surface, the Surface to the Line, and the Line to the Point 73 29. Admonition: On the Absence of the Interpenetration of Corporeal Dimensions 74 30. Remark: Concerning Quantitative Distances Among Disjoined Bodies 75 31. Admonition: On the Nonexistence of Void 75 32. Remark: On the Existence of Direction 75 33. Remark: Direction Is of a Sensible, Not an Intelligible Nature 76 34. Remark: Direction Is an Undivided Extremity of Dimension and Toward Which Movement Can Be Made 76 35. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Concrete Existence of Direction as Opposed to Its Conceptual Being 77 Second Class: On the Directions and Their Primary and Secondary Bodies 1. Remark: Concerning the Directions That Change and Those That Do Not 78 2. Remark: Concerning the Determination of the Position of a Direction 78 3. Remark: Concerning the Body That Determines the Direction 79 x—Contents 4. A Follow-up: Concerning the Circularity of the Body That Determines the Directions 80 5. Remark: Concerning the Undiversified Nature of the Simple Body 80 6. Remark: Concerning the Circularity of the Shape of the Simple Body 81 7. Admonition: Concerning the Propensity of a Body for Motion 81 8. Remark: Concerning the Necessity of the Natural Propensity of a Body for the Violent Motion of That Body 82 9. A Reminder: Concerning the Divisibility of Time 83 10. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Assertion That a Body Has Essentially a Place, a Position, and a Shape 83 11. Remark: Further Consideration of the Body’s Relation to Its Place and Position 84 12. Remark: Concerning the Circular Motion of the Enveloping Sphere 84 13. Admonition: Concerning the Relativity of This Possible Change to an Internal Body 85 14. Admonition: Concerning the Manner in Which the Motion of the Enveloping Sphere Is Measured 85 15. Remark: Concerning the Propensity for a Linear Motion of Generable and Corruptible Beings 85 16. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Actual Linear Motion of the Generable and Corruptible Beings 86 17. Remark: Concerning the Nature of the Enveloping Sphere as Free from Linear Motion and from the Type of Generation and Corruption of Other Bodies 86 18. Admonition: Concerning the Primary Bodily Qualities for Acting and Reacting 87 19. Admonition: Concerning the Four Elements 88 20. Admonition: Concerning the Cause That Determines the Place of the Elements 88 21. Admonition: Concerning the Common Matter of the Four Elements 88 Contents—xi 22. Remark and Admonition: Concerning the Four Elements as Primary Principles of Generation and Corruption in Our World 89 23. Admonition: Concerning the Mixture of the Four Elements and the Manner in Which Sublunary Beings Are Generated 90 24. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning Change in the Qualities 90 25. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Source of Combustion 91 26: A Small Point: Regarding the Nature of the Flame 92 27. Admonition: Concerning the Wisdom of the Maker in Creating the Order of Mixtures 93 Third Class: On the Terrestrial and Celestial Souls 1. Admonition: Proof for the Existence of the Soul Through Intuition 94 2. Admonition: Concerning the Nonintermediary Manner in Which the Soul Is Apprehended 94 3. Admonition: Regarding the Nonsensible Nature of the Soul 95 4. Delusion and Admonition: The Soul Is Not Asserted by the Mediation of Its Acts 96 5. Remark: The Soul Is Not the Temperament of the Body, but the Substance That Manages the Body 96 6. Remark: Regarding the Unity of the Soul and Its Relationship to the Body 97 7. Remark: Concerning the Nature of Apprehension 98 8. Admonition: Concerning the Different Types of Apprehension 98 9. Remark: Concerning the Internal Senses 99 10. Remark: Concerning the Rational Soul 101 11. Admonition: The Difference Between Thought and Intuition 103 12. Remark: Evidence for the Existence of the Saintly Power 103 xii—Contents 13. Remark: Evidence for the Existence of the Agent Intellect and for the Possibility of Our Soul’s Conjunction with It 104 14. Remark: The Cause of Conjunction with the Agent Intellect 105 15. Remark: The Soul’s Preparedness for Receiving the Intelligibles 105 16. Remark: Concerning the Immateriality of Intellectual Substances 106 17. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Indivisibility of That Which Apprehends the Intelligibles and the Divisibility of That Which Apprehends the Sensibles 107 18. Delusion and Admonition: The Issue of Division with Regard to the Intelligibles 108 19. Remark: To Intellect Is to Be Intelligible 108 20. Delusion and Admonition: Consideration of Intelligibility with Regard to the Material Form 109 21. Delusion and Admonition: Denial of the Claim That Individuality Is an Impediment to the Intelligibility of the Quiddity 109 22. Admonition: Recapitulation 110 Supplement to the [Third] Class: On Expositing the Movements Produced by the Soul 23. Admonition: A Preparatory Note 111 24. Remark: Powers of the Plant Soul 111 25. Remark: Movements Produced by the Animal Soul 112 26. Remark: Movements of Celestial Bodies 112 27. Premise: Concerning the Sensible and Intellectual Volitions 113 28. Remark: Concerning the Intellectual Volition of the Enveloping Sphere 113 29. Admonition: Concerning the Particular Volition 113 30. Rendezvous and Admonition: Movement Is Directed Toward an Object Which the Mover Considers Good for It 114 Contents—xiii PART THREE: METAPHYSICS Fourth Class: On Existence and Its Causes 1.
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