Thesis ID: CBB001561549

Avicenna's Philosophy of Mind: Self-Awareness and Intentionality (2006)

unapi

Alwishah, Ahmed R. D. (Author)


University of California, Los Angeles
Zia'í, Hossein


Publication Date: 2006
Edition Details: Advisor: Ziai, Hossein
Physical Details: 148 pp.
Language: English

The purpose of this dissertation is to establish a systematic account of Avicenna's philosophy of mind, incorporating his innovative views on the existence of the soul, self-awareness, perception and intentionality. In investigating Avicenna's philosophy of mind, I adopt a holistic and analytical approach that enables us to distinguish Avicenna's views from the Aristotelian psychology and at the same time allows a fruitful comparison between Avicenna's and Descartes philosophy of mind. The dissertation is divided into two parts: in the first part I reconstruct Avicenna's views of the existence of the soul and the self-awareness. By offering a new interpretation of the Floating Man argument I demonstrate that in Avicenna's view the essence of the soul ( inniyyah ) can be aware of its own existence independent from sensory experience and the existence of the body. As for the notion of self-awareness I conclude that Avicenna's notion of self- awareness is a special form of knowledge that requires no distinction between the knowing subject and the known object. In this kind of process he distinguishes between the stage of the non-predicative mode of cognition where there is a direct awareness of the self, and the epistemic mode where one is aware of the content of his awareness of himself. I devote the second part of this dissertation to the epistemic relation between the human soul and external reality. This relation is explored through Avicenna's doctrines of perception and intentionality. I show how Avicenna's account of abstraction and the transformation of the sensible form into intelligible content provides him with an epistemic basis for understanding external reality. With respect to the theory of intentionality I distinguish three types of intention (usually conflated by modern scholars) which have important ramification for Avicenna's philosophy of mind: sensory, extramental, and intelligible. These types of intention bridge the gap between internal, mental reality and the external world.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 68/04 (2007). Pub. no. AAT 3257195.


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Authors & Contributors
Zghal, Hatem
Janssens, Jules L
Alpina, Tommaso
Thijssen, Johannes M. M. H.
Strohmaier, Gotthard
Rofougaran, Nicolas Louis
Concepts
Philosophy
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
Soul (philosophy)
Philosophy of mind
Senses and sensation; perception
Psychology
Time Periods
Medieval
Renaissance
17th century
13th century
11th century
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