Avicenna (980-1037 CE)

Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna in the West, was an Islamic Golden Age physician and polymath, whose work dealt with physical health, philosophy, and mental health (Hajar, 2013).

Self-awareness and substance dualism

Avicenna believed in substance dualism, the separation of the body and soul. He described the soul, or “human essence”, as an immaterial substance, independent from the physical body (Kaukua, 2015). He attributed self-awareness to the soul and emphasized that this self-awareness was independent of any perception of the physical world (Jeftiċ, 2014). In his Flying Man thought experiment, he asked the individual to consider a human being with no sensory experience, i.e., no perception of the physical world through their five external senses. According to Avicenna, the individual would only be aware that they exist, thus their self-awareness does not depend on experience or the body’s relation to the physical world. Although Avicenna stated the soul and the body are independent of one another, he stated that both happen to emerge simultaneously. He posits that the human soul is incapable of pre-existing the body, but that the body is not the cause of the soul coming into existence. While the soul does not pre-exist the body, it does not perish with the body (i.e., it is immortal). To summarize, Avicenna finds that both the presence of the soul and the body are necessary for the emergence of an individual being. The body requires the soul to make it a living body (to make it animated) and the soul requires the body to come into existence.

Faculty psychology and the internal senses

In his explanation of cognition, covering both humans and non-humans, Avicenna characterized five distinct “faculties” or internal senses, each located in a distinct part of the brain: the common sense, the formative faculty (imagery), the estimative faculty, the retentive faculty (memory), and the imaginative faculty (thought) (Ivry, 2012). Perceptual cognition relies on the complete system of senses, both the external senses (i.e., the five senses of touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing) and the aforementioned internal senses. First, the common sense organizes information received from the five external senses to produce a unified image of an object and transmits this image to the formative faculty which retains the image (i.e., memory of sensible qualities). The estimative faculty is an animal’s innate ability to sense the intention or meaning of an object which cannot be perceived using the five external senses (e.g., a sheep becomes fearful when seeing a wolf, even if the wolf is not aggressive at the moment). The meanings understood using the estimative faculty are stored in the retentive faculty. The imaginative faculty, or ‘thought’ in humans, is the ability to make connections between the perceived images and meanings of those images (Ivry, 2012).

Abstraction

Avicenna’s theory of knowledge acquisition is based on the principle of increasing abstraction. In abstraction, the individual is able to create a universal, immaterial concept of a particular physical object (Rahman, 1981, 41 as cited in Jeftiċ, 2014). In other words, acquiring knowledge happens when we no longer require the physical presence of an object to know it (e.g., after successful encounters with an oak tree, we know what an oak tree is without having to perceive it). The first stage of abstraction is sense perception, using the five external senses, which can only occur in the presence of a physical object. The second stage of abstraction occurs when the image formed in the common sense is retained in the imagery, since the existence of a cognitive form (i.e., mental image) is no longer dependent on the presence of the physical object. The third stage of abstraction is estimation, wherein the individual senses the meaning of an object, a feature that is not perceivable using the external senses and therefore not dependent on the object’s material features. However, estimation is not completely separate from an object’s material features since the meaning of the object can only be understood as something that is associated with those features (e.g., a sheep cannot infer hostility from a wolf if it does not first perceive the wolf). The highest form of abstraction involves understanding the intellectual form of an object, which is the essence of that object, regardless of the differences between one iteration of that object to the next (Rahman, 1981). For example, understanding the intellectual form of a human being means understanding the essence of a human being, independent of the qualities that make each person an individual (e.g., hair colour, height, etc.).

References

Amr, S., & Tbakhi, A. (2007). Ibn Sina (Avicenna): The prince of physicians. Annals of Saudi Medicine, 27, 134.

Avicenna & Rahman, F. (1981). Avicenna’s Psychology. Hyperion P.

Hajar, R. (2013). The Air of History (Part V) Ibn Sina (Avicenna): The Great Physician and Philosopher. Heart Views : The Official Journal of the Gulf Heart Association, 14(4), 196–201. https://doi.org/10.4103/1995-705X.126893.

Ivry, A. (2012). Arabic and Islamic Psychology and Philosophy of Mind. Plato.stanford.edu. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/arabic-islamic-mind/#Avi.

Jeftiċ, A. (2014). Ethics and dualism in contemporary psychology: From Avicenna and Descartes to neuroscience. Epiphany, 7, 167–182.

Kaukua, J. (2015). Self-Awareness in Islamic Philosophy: Avicenna and Beyond. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press.

Contributors

• Supriya Bains
• Chantelle Castelino
• Maha Salman Cheena

Alhazen (965-1040 CE)

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, also known as Alhazen, was an Arab-Islamic scholar. He is considered the father of modern optics, as well as a pioneer of the scientific method (Daneshfard et al., 2016).

Alhazen was born in Basra, modern Iraq, where he studied as a child before completing his education in Baghdad (Daneshfard et al., 2016). He began his professional career as a judge in Basra, however, he turned his efforts toward the study of science, as he noted the conflicting ideas being presented from various religious perspectives. Alhazen became well known as a mathematician and physicist in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt. As such, he was thus called upon by Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Fatimid Caliph of Egypt, to formulate and execute a plan for controlling the floods of the Nile River. While working on this assignment, Alhazen came to the conclusion that his design would be unfeasible, and he feared that admitting this would result in severe punishment given the Caliph’s reputation as a volatile and ruthless leader. Instead, he feigned insanity to be excused from completing the assignment and was subsequently held under house arrest in Cairo until the death of Al-Hakim approximately 10 years later (Daneshfard et al., 2016). Alhazen completed a number of written works while on house arrest on several subjects, including physics, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, psychology, and visual perception. Most notably, he wrote Kitab Al Manazer [Book of Optics] during this period, which became highly influential in the field of optics in both the East and the West (Daneshfard et al., 2016). After being released, Alhazen remained in Cairo, and began teaching mathematics and physics, while continuing to write scientific texts. Many of his works have been lost throughout history, however, it is estimated that he wrote more than 200 books spanning several scientific disciplines . Among those that have been preserved, Kitab Al Manazer is indubitably his most celebrated work.

In Kitab Al Manazer, Alhazen proposed a new theory of vision, which held that light is reflected off of objects and enters the eye, which opposed the prevailing view that the eyes project light onto objects (Gorini, 2003). In his argument, he presented several observations of phenomena that cannot be accounted for by the prevailing view. For example, when an individual looks directly at a powerful light source, they experience the sensation of pain (Daneshfard et al., 2016). Moreover, Alhazen contended that the eye only perceives light and colour, and other sensations (e.g., size, distance, shape) are produced in the brain. Also incorporated in Kitab Al Manazer were explanations of ocular anatomy and its functional mechanisms, along with examinations of several visual phenomena, such as the refraction and dispersion of light. Kitab Al Manazer became accessible in the West in 1572, when Frederick Risner published the text in Latin, which was translated by Polish scholar Witelio three centuries earlier (Daneshfard et al., 2016). Consequently, Alhazen’s work influenced many Western scholars, and his theory of vision dominated the field of optics up until the 17th century (Daneshfard et al., 2016). Kitab Al Manazer has been ranked along with Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica as one of the most influential books ever written in the field of physics (Daneshfard et al., 2016).

In addition to presenting a revolutionary theory of light and vision, Alhazen is also credited with establishing a scientific method in this work (Daneshfard et al., 2016). To provide evidence of his theories, he created rigorous experimental methods, including systematic observation and repetition, which closely resemble the modern scientific method. After this initial work, Alhazen continued his pioneering research on vision and visual perception. Thus, some consider him to be the founder of psychophysics and experimental psychology as well. Alhazen revolutionized the field of optics and applied scientific procedures comparable to those of modern science. He was a truly impeccable scholar and justly deserving of a place in the history of psychology.

References

Daneshfard, B., Dalfardi, B., & Nezhad, G. S. M. (2016). Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039 AD), the original portrayal of the modern theory of vision. Journal of Medical Biography, 24, 227–231. doi: 10.1177/0967772014529050

Gorini, R. (2003). Al-Haytham the man of experience: First Steps in the Science of Vision. Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine, 2, 53–55.

Tbakhi, A., & Amr, S. S. (2007). Ibn Al-Haytham : Father of modern optics. Annals of Saudi Medicine, 27, 464. https://doi.org/10.4103/0256-4947.51450

Contributors

• Supriya Bains
• Faheel Ahmad

Averroes (1126-1198 CE) (**SC)

Written by Mauda Karram

Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes, was an Islamic scholar, whose translations of philosophical works and advocacy for philosophy’s place alongside religion make him one of the most influential Muslim philosophers.

Born in the Islamic state of Cordova, Spain, Averroes descended from an influential, scholarly family, with both his father and grandfather serving as the chief judges of Cordova (Hillier, 2004). Closely following in their footsteps, Averroes studied Islamic law, philosophy and medicine, with his great wisdom allowing him to serve as the chief judge, and later chief physician, in the royal palace (Fahkry, 2001). His closeness with royalty is what lead him to pursue one of his life’s greatest achievements, which began with the caliph (ruler) of Cordova asking him to translate Aristotle’s works (Etuk, 2022). Averroes’ translations of Aristotle’s work were filled with his own commentary, as he clarified Aristotle’s complex thinking for the public to understand. Averroes also introduced his own thoughts to the world, as he authored more than seventy original works, covering the topics of medicine, logic, science and philosophy, including natural philosophy, astronomy, metaphysics, psychology, politics and ethics (Ahmed & Pasnau, 2021). Unfortunately, many of his works written in Arabic have been lost over time, and modern readers rely on papers that were translated into Hebrew or Latin.

Averroes believed that logic was the study of conditions and rules which guide the mind toward the conception (taṣawwur) of essences and the assent (taṣdīq) to propositions (Ahmed & Pasnau, 2021). He described five types of logical processes: demonstrative, dialectical, rhetorical, poetical, and fallacious. Their forms are the same, but their premises differ. Averroes saw logic as the only way one can be certain in philosophy. This sophisticated reasoning would allow for the identification of faulty argumentative methods of theologians.

Concerning psychology and the nature of human beings, Averroes attributed the soul as an account for living substances. Averroes believed that it is impossible to attribute the complex abilities of living things to non-living elements, and therefore living things must have a soul (Ahmed & Pasnau, 2021). Further, he considered that all humans have five external senses, with these senses responsible for identifying the material qualities of the external world, called the proper object (e.g. colour is a proper object of the sense of sight). When the sense is combined with its proper object, all comes down to the utmost principle of sensation –– common sense. Common sense perceives the form, and originates in the heart, but terminates in the brain, bringing sensible forms to higher sensory powers. These higher sensory powers entail imagination, cognitive power, and memory –– all distinct in function and in subject and account for much of human cognition. However, these ideas came to an end with the concept of thinking abstractly, which requires intellect. Averroes realized he could not assume a universal intellect for humans (Ahmed & Pasnau, 2021).  As such, he offered the first statement of the extended-mind thesis: “That a being’s cognitive system extends beyond the individual organism.”

References

Ahmed, F. B., & Pasnau, R. (2021). Ibn Rushd. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ibn-rushd/

Etuk, A. R. (2022). Revisiting Averroes’ influence on Western philosophy. LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 19(1), 174-194.

Fakhry 2001, Majid. Averroes (Ibn Rushd): His Life, Works and Influence. Oxford: Oneworld, 2001.

Forcada, M. (2007). Ibn Rusdh: Abū al‐Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Rushd al‐Ḥafīd. In: Hockey T. et al. (eds) The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_687

Hillier, H. Chad. ―Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126-1198)‖. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2004. https://iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/#H1.

Leaman, O. & Joseph A.K. (2022). Ibn Rushd, Abū al-Walīd Muḥammad Aḥmad. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t342/e0051.