The Avicennian Moment Separation and the science of being (qua being) in Aristotle and Avicenna Timothy Mark Johannessen Submitted in total fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Arts) June 2019 Asia Institute University of Melbourne ORCID: 0000-0002-9551-0198 Abstract This thesis considers the fundamental conception of first philosophy (metaphysics) in the Metaphysics of Aristotle and its reception–reform in a major work of Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn Ibn-Sīna (Avicenna): the Metaphysics of the Healing (al-Ilāhiyyāt: al-Shifā’). Specifically, it examines some of the main theoretical features that underpin both the conception and programme of first philosophy (understood as a study both of being qua being and of immaterial being) in these works, including the notions of ‘separation’ and ‘abstraction’, which both Aristotle and Avicenna employ pervasively. In doing so, this thesis seeks to show, first of all, how each thinker solves the problem of the relationship between the ontological and theological dimensions of first philosophy, and how their solutions, and the arguments they depend on, both reflect and are reflected in their wider views on being and the nature of scientific enquiry. It is argued that while the notion of separation as independence is fundamental for Aristotle (as seen, for example, in his treatment of the aporiai of Metaphysics B), by contrast, for Avicenna, the notion of abstraction as immateriality, is central. Similar points of comparison are presented, such as the very notion of a notion or meaning which Avicenna employs constantly, as in his unique treatment of the problem of the homonymy of being; and it is argued that the conception of meaning that Avicenna uses here is not, as such, found in Aristotle, who instead relies on a notion of logoi. These differences, then, represent some of the main sources of disagreement between the two philosophers with respect to their accounts of being. Finally, the preceding questions are also examined in connection with the problem of whether we find a distinct notion of existence in Aristotle, such as we find in Avicenna, and if so, how this notion is treated in the context of his scientific investigation of being and its divisions. In this way, this thesis seeks to illuminate, from one perspective, what separates and connects these two key moments in the history of philosophy and the reception–history of the Metaphysics. i Declaration This thesis comprises only my original work towards the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. The thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, bibliography and appendices. Timothy Mark Johannessen ii Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... i Declaration ............................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. v Introduction ................................................................................................................................. vi I. Preliminary remarks ............................................................................................................ vi II. Research questions ........................................................................................................... viii III. Scope and approach ........................................................................................................ viii IV. Method .............................................................................................................................. ix V. Objectives .......................................................................................................................... ix VI. Chapter summaries ........................................................................................................... xi VII. Literature ........................................................................................................................ xv Chapter 1: First things ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 The reception–history of Aristotle’s Metaphysics .......................................................... 1 1.2 The structure of Aristotelian first philosophy .............................................................. 16 Chapter 2: Separation ................................................................................................................. 31 2.1 Separation and abstraction ............................................................................................ 32 2.2 Abstraction and reduplicative analysis in Aristotle ...................................................... 37 2.3 Avicenna on abstraction and immateriality .................................................................. 46 2.4 Quiddity in Itself .......................................................................................................... 50 2.5 The essence–existence distinction ............................................................................... 58 2.6 Varieties of separation and their logical foundation in Avicenna ............................... 63 Chapter 3: Separation problems ................................................................................................. 67 3.1 Metaphysics B .............................................................................................................. 68 3.2 The eleventh aporia about being and one .................................................................... 73 3.3 Avicenna and the eleventh aporia ................................................................................ 88 Chapter 4: The meaning of being .............................................................................................. 99 4.1 Signification ................................................................................................................. 99 4.2 Language–thought–reality .......................................................................................... 105 4.3 Avicenna on the modulated equivocity of ‘being’ ..................................................... 114 4.4 The notion of ma’ānī in Avicenna and the Arabic (Aristotelian) tradition ................ 122 Chapter 5: Dividing being ........................................................................................................ 129 5.1 Being and existence in Greek and Arabic philosophy ................................................ 131 5.2 Aristotle on the ‘senses’ of being in Δ.7 .................................................................... 134 5.3 The role of ‘be’ in Aristotle’s analysis of the statement-making sentence ................ 142 iii 5.4 The categories of being .............................................................................................. 150 5.5 The two senses of per se ‘belonging’ ........................................................................ 164 5.6 Predication and existence .......................................................................................... 171 Chapter 6: Ontology and theology ........................................................................................... 173 6.1 The problem restated in the light of its solution ........................................................ 173 6.2 The Ancient Commentators on being qua being and the divine ............................... 175 6.3 Islamic Neoplatonism ................................................................................................ 179 6.4 Modern interpretations .............................................................................................. 181 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 185 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 189 Primary Sources ................................................................................................................... 189 Secondary Literature ............................................................................................................ 191 iv Acknowledgements Thank you Dr Muhammad Kamal, my primary supervisor, for the wisdom and careful guidance you have provided me throughout my candidature. Without your calm encouragement from beginning to end, writing this thesis would not have been possible. Your dedication to philosophy is also remarkable and a great source of inspiration. Thank you Dr Lewis Mayo for showing us that language matters, that ideas matter, and that the well-being of others matters to you before all else. You are a demonstration that the most refined thought and a true sense of egalitarianism can exist in one person. Thanks to Nick Tumbas and to Redha Ameur for your goodness, friendship, and many hours of conversation. Thanks to Leena Sookramanien for the important work that you do with such good spirit, and to Dr Edwin Jurriens for your additional supervision. Thanks to my