Episode 18 Medieval Mastermind: Ibn Sina

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

In the Divine Comedy, Dante places the physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna in Latin) with the Greek philosophers in the least wicked circle of Hell. Many scholars view him as the most important philosopher and thinker of all time.

In the Book of Healing, Ibn Sina writes about the philosophical challenge of healing the ignorant soul and the Floating Man thought experiment.*

Written in the early 11th century, the boo discusses logic, natural science, mathematics and music theory, metaphysics, ontology (the basic nature of being) and cosmology (the root cause of all things). It’s mostly based on Aristotle’s and al-Farabi’s work on metaphysics. However Ibn Sina  goes much further than Aristotle in defining god and the soul.

Born in 980 in Bukhara Persia (now part of Uzbekistan), Ibin Sina’s father worked for the Samanid Dynasty (see Samurkhan: Timur’s Cultural Capitol ).

In his autobiography the physician/philosopher talks about his tutor being astounded by his brilliance. He memorized the Koran at age 10 moved on to study natural science and metaphysics (the nature of existence. He began to the study of medicine at 13 and the study of jurisprudence at 16.

After saving the life of a local ruler, he was granted access to his library, where he engaged in translating Greek, Latin and Hindu texts.

In the 10th century, the gradual rise of the Seljuk Turks on the Eurasian steppes forced Ibn Sina to relocate numerous times. This mean he was never beholding to a single school of thinking.

He drank wine and never married, despite enjoying intimate relations with women.

In 1085 following the fall of Toledo (in modern day Spain), his work became required reading at the universities in Oxford and Paris. Embraced by Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas and John Dunn, the work of Avicenna would have a big impact on all three Abrahamic religions.

*In this thought experiment, Ibn Sina describes an individual floating in space with no memory or sensory perception and explores whether they would grasp the fact that they exist.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757027