Metaphysics in IBN Sina

Introduction

Abu Ali b. al-Husayn b.Abdullah b. Sinai., known in the West with his Latinized name Avicenna, was born in Afsana, near Balkh, the largest city of Khorasan, before 980 B.C. He died in Hamedan in 1037 A.D [1]. What is known about Ibn Sina is conveyed through the biography written by his devoted student Ebu Ubeyd el-Cüzcani, in which Ibn Sina describes his own life. Ibn Sina, who memorized the Quran at the age of ten and studied literature with great interest, learned Indian arithmetic with the guidance of his father. Ibn Sina, who was interested in philosophical issues because his father was also an Ismaili, became a master of logic. Ibn Sina, who also wants to learn the science of medicine, reads books on this subject with pleasure and begins to have a say in the field of medicine. He treats various diseases and has the widest perspectives on treatments that are not applied in practice. Ibn Sina, who developed himself in the fields of philosophy and logic, was interested in metaphysics. Ibn Sina, who read Aristotle's book titled Metaphysics and Farabi's book titled "Fi AÄ?rad Kitabu ma ba'd et-Tabia" in Arabic translations, looked for answers to questions regarding metaphysical issues [2]. The basic starting point of Ibn Sina's metaphysics is the question of what the soul is and how it causes the body, what is God and how it causes the world. Within the two-question dilemma that seems to separate Plato and Aristotle - the dilemma between the Aristotelian doctrine in which God functions as the purpose cause and the Platonic doctrine in which God functions as the principal cause; The dilemma between the Aristotelian doctrine that the soul is inseparable from the body and the Platonic doctrine that the soul is separable from the body - Ibn Sina attempts to resolve this dilemma with his distinction between being (body) and essence (mahiyya), which he owes to the kalam's distinction between thing (thing) and being (existing). It constituted a turning point in the history of metaphysics. Ibn Sina, who played an important role in the destruction of scholastic thought in the West, put forward his own philosophical doctrine in terms of metaphysics [3].

Subject of Metaphysical Science

The subject of the science of metaphysics is existence in so far as it is existence. This science examines the causes, the causes of the causes, the principles of the principles and separately the substances. This is why; this science is the noblest of sciences. According to Ibn Sina, all sciences are based on it and reality derives their power from it. This science is called first philosophy because it is the science of what is first in existence and universality. This science, called divine, takes this name because it is ontologically the science of knowing God. Ibn Sina's metaphysics: it is the entire knowledge of God and celestial bodies. The doctrine of causality and the theory of genesis are shaped around these two issues. On top of everything, there is Necessary Existence, which is pure existence, truth and goodness. It is a world of ideas that emanates from Him. This world is a series of pure minds without power and addictions. These pure minds are directed towards the First Being and strive to imitate him. Beneath them lies the world of souls. These celestial beings represent the highest form of material forms; they manage the bodies of the heavens and the earth elements through them [2].

The subject of metaphysics; these are things like the types of existence, its accidents, its uniqueness and multiplicity, its power and action, its partiality and universality, its necessity and possibility [4]. The subject of metaphysics is not God. God is free from matter and material things. Therefore, God is not the subject of metaphysics, but can be sought within metaphysics. According to Ibn Sina, existence cannot be explained by anything other than the name existence, because it is the first principle of every explanation. According to him, existence is an accident for things with essence, that is, these things acquired their existence later. Essence is separate from existence and is not pure non-existence. In the sense of opposing existence, which is its opposite, but until it receives existence in its external possibility, there is its absence [5].

Metaphysical Thought in IBN Sina

Avicenna's philosophy essentially emerged as a general system of sciences. The difference between introverted and extroverted explanations of his doctrine is better understood from this perspective. The landmark of Ibn Sina's metaphysics is the distinction between necessary existence and possible existence (necessary and possible). Aristotle said, “No being in power can act without the influence of another being in action.” It is possible to see an existential determinism in the philosophical system of Ibn Sina, which adheres to the principle of An important point that distinguishes his philosophy from Aristotle and Plato; That the First Being is not thought that does not think, but pure thought that thinks itself, is not only a dominant goodness and beauty, but also the first love, and is not only the cause of purpose (purpose) but the universal cause [2].

Every attribute that does not resemble the essence is either a constitutive attribute that creates the essence, a feature that is a necessary consequence of the essence, or an accident. The first is the adjective used to describe without which it is impossible to know things; it is the feature that creates the concept of things. This is the shape according to the triangle, the body according to the human. The second is the feature that accompanies it without being a part of it; the sum of the interior angles of the triangle is 180. Thirdly, as a symptom; features such as youth and old age. Only small things can be defined, simple things have no definition, only an incomplete description. Since God is absolutely simple, he cannot be described. Only what distinguishes Him from others can be described. If there is no definition of Necessary Existence, it is because it has no genus, division or compound. If the essence of the necessary being consists of a combination of two things or many things gathered together, it becomes necessary with these things. One or each of these things separately exists before the Necessary Existence and creates the Necessary Existence. Thus, according to Ibn Sina, none of these can be necessary beings. If the Necessary Being is unified, it has an essence that constitutes itself but is outside its own existence, which is the opposite of its necessity.

The "essence" of a thing may be the cause of one of its qualities; the existence of this thing does not arise because of its essence; because every cause comes before its result before it exists. The Essence contains only the simple possibility of existence. Reasons for existence; are not the same as the causes of essence. The existence of the human concept in the outside world and in thought is a state completely independent of the human being; because if existence or existence were a feature that creates essence, human beings could not exist in the mind.

Ibn Sina accepts that existence can be grasped by the soul intuition. The soul can know what it is and become conscious of its existence without any external sensation or thought. Ibn Sina gives the example of a flying man for this. When a human being, whose essence is complete and solid in terms of mind and appearance, and whose body and organs are complete and separately suspended in the air and in space, is imagined, it means that the human being will be unaware of everything other than his own existence and will be aware of his own existence.

Avicenna does not see a distinction between being and existing, and non-existence cannot be the object of a positive explanation. Non-existence cannot pass into existence; if it did, there would be a distinction between it and its counterpart, and someone else would be found in its place. If someone else looks like him, he is not him; because it is not what exists and disappears, in non-existence it is not itself. Ibn Sina, who divides existence into three in his thought, either in the external world, in the mind, or as absolute existence, takes the human "I" as the starting point in this regard.

Beings have various entities; one is a man, another is a horse, another is a stone, etc. None of these exist by themselves. Therefore, their essence is not in their existence; assets are given externally. However, real existence, without a beginning, does not receive its existence from anyone; its existence is from itself, but it is not a part of its essence. Therefore, its essence is also its existence. This kind of being is Necessary (necessary) being whose existence is its essence. But in possible existence, essence is separate from existence, because he receives that existence from someone else. But the essential existence of the "possible" has its basis in the thought that al-Awwal has about itself, and it derives its existence not from nothing (ex nihilo), but from necessarily developing innate (emanation).

In Ibn Sina's thought, the separation of "essence and existence" emerges. This complies with the descent-ascension cosmology handed down to him from Neo-Platonic commentators. A quality that is existence cannot belong solely to things, in accordance with the rules of existence, due to a non-existent nature or another quality; because cause is prior to existence, but nothing exists before existence. Here the difference between existence and other qualities is this; other qualities exist due to quiddity, and quiddity exists due to existence. Thus, Ibn Sina distinguishes the quality of being; the emergence of this quality is due to nature. In order for the effect to come from it, the essence must exist; but essence and existence do not exist without existing in things. Therefore, the quality of existence does not exist due to other qualities of essence; because in this case, the essence and the quality of existence (wujud) exist before existence, which is impossible.

Conclusion

Avicenna's Metaphysics is a system that is shaped within the framework of the Neo-Platonic descent-ascension cosmology, which inherits from the Ammonia tradition, and reaches its principal point with the distinction between essence and existence, which it owes to Aristotle to some extent. Ibn Sina, who rose from the distinction between essence and existence to the necessary-possible distinction, played a leading role in the destruction of scholastic thought in the West. Necessary existence-possible existence and formation-destruction theories around the theory of emanation show that metaphysics has a mystical character. In his effort to reconcile the Neo-Platonic effective cause with the Aristotelian purpose cause, Ibn Sina's basis is the distinction between thing and nature, from which he makes use of the kalam, and the distinction between Necessary wujud-bi-zatihi, Necessary wujud-bi-gayrihi.

References

1. De Vaux (Carra), Avicenna, Paris 1900 .
2. Altintas, H. (1985).Ibn Sina Metafizigi.
3. Wisnovsky, R. (2010). Ibn Sînâ Metafizigi, çev. Ibrahim Halil Üçer.Istanbul: Klasik Yayinlari, 1.
4. Ibn Sina. Sifa.
5. Ibn Sina. Necat.