A Critical Analysis of Aquinas' Reading on the Avicenna's Creation Model

Abstract

One of the oldest and most important metaphysical problems is the creation of the multiplicity of things and their relations to oneness. Avicenna adopted a viewpoint on the issue that Aquinas has recited it in his works. Aquinas' narration from Ibn Sina would be criticized on two grounds; First, Aquinas has not acted carefully in choosing some of the Latin words to reflect the Avicenna's point. Second, in the Aquinas' narration, the term "potential" is used referring to everything except God, while such a term does not appear in the Avicennian literature- especially in Shifa (Book of Healing). Thus, the main problem of this study is that, why did Aquinas present such a reading of Ibn Sina's creation system? According to the authors, there are pieces of evidence that show Aquinas learned about Avicenna's viewpoint through al-Ghazali’s treatises. This had a great influence on his recitation of Avicenna. Although reading and terms of Aquinas are in some ways different from the Avicenna's, it can be considered compatible with Avicenna's philosophy.

Keywords

• avicenna
• aquinas
• multiplicity
• creation
• potentiality