Ibn Sīnā and the Book of Healing
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For everyone
Ibn Sīnā's encyclopedic Book of Healing (Kitāb al-Shifāʾ) covers logic, physics, mathematics and metaphysics. He sought to ground God's existence by reason with the argument from the necessary existent. He is also famous for the "flying man" thought experiment, which says that a person blindfolded and suspended in empty space would still be aware of their own existence.
For specialists
Ibn Sīnā distinguishes essence (māhiyya) from existence (wujūd): contingent beings do not require existence by their essence; since a chain of contingents cannot go on forever, there must be a Necessary Existent whose essence is its existence. The argument influenced Aquinas's "third way" in the West. Al-Ghazālī criticised Ibn Sīnā's views on the eternity of the world and on God's knowledge of particulars.
Claims
- Contingent beings, whose existence depends on another, must ultimately depend on a Necessary Existent whose existence is from itself.[1]
Evidence
Supporting
A totality of contingent beings is itself contingent and needs an external cause for its existence.[1]
Challenging
That each part has a cause does not require the whole to have a separate cause (the fallacy-of-composition objection).[2]
Connections
Influenced by
Argued against by
Related
This topic is a stop on these journeys
Sources
- EncyclopediaIbn Sina [Avicenna]. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophyplato.stanford.eduarchive
- Book (1779). Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. London (Part IX)gutenberg.orgarchive
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Cite this page
Athena contributors. (2026). Ibn Sīnā and the Book of Healing. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/ibn-sina/
@misc{athena_ibn_sina,
title = {Ibn Sīnā and the Book of Healing},
author = {{Athena contributors}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/ibn-sina/}},
note = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}Added: September 27, 2026 · Last changed: September 28, 2026 · Page history