 |
customer@davidpublishing.com |
 |
3275638434 |
 |
 |
| Paper Publishing WeChat |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Ibn Sīnā’s Metaphysics Between Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism
Muhammad Kamal
Full-Text PDF
XML 153 Views
DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2026.03.009
The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
This paper examines Ibn Sīnā’s metaphysics as a critical synthesis of Aristotle’s philosophical framework and the emanationist scheme of Plotinus. While Ibn Sīnā adopts the Neoplatonic doctrine of emanation, he fundamentally reinterprets the nature of the first principle. By comparing Plotinus’ concept of the One with Ibn Sīnā’s Necessary Being, the paper argues that their apparent similarity as ultimate sources of reality conceals a profound metaphysical divergence. Plotinus characterizes the One as “beyond being”, simple and ineffable, accessible only through negative discourse. Ibn Sīnā, by contrast, identifies the first principle with necessary existence itself, thereby integrating it into an Aristotelian framework in which existence (wujūd) is metaphysically primary.
Being qua being, Emanation, Necessary, the One
Muhammad Kamal. (2026). Ibn Sīnā’s Metaphysics Between Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. Philosophy Study, May-June 2026, Vol. 16, No. 3, 283-289.
Adamson, P. (2013). From the necessary existent to god. In Interpreting Avicenna: Critical essays. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Aristotle. (1995). Metaphysics. In J. Barnes (Ed.), Complete works of Aristotle, Vol. 2. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Gerson, L. P. (1994). Plotinus. London and New York: Routledge.
Ibn Sīnā. (1956) Al-Isharat wa al-tanbihat. Tahqiq Sulayman Dunya, al-Qahira: Dar al-Ma’arif.
Ibn Sīnā. (1985). Kitab al-Najat. Beirut: Dar Afaq al-Jadidah.
Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna). (2005). The metaphysics of healing (al-Shifa). A parallel English-Arabic Text, translated, introduced and annotated by M. Marmura. Provo, Utah: Brigham University Press.
Nasr, S. H. (2006). Islamic philosophy from its origin to the present: Philosophy in the land of prophecy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Plato. (1997a). Timaeus. In J. M. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson (Eds.), Complete works of Plato. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
Plato. (1997b). Phaedo. In J. M. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson (Eds.), Complete works of Plato. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
Plato. (1997c). Republic. In J. M. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson (Eds.), Complete works of Plato. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
Plotinus. (1984). Enneads. (A. H. Armstrong, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rist, J. M. (1967). Plotinus: The road to reality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.