Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi (Jan 2017)
Does Existence Precede Essence? Existentialism And Avicenna
Abstract
Existentialism is one of the important matters of philosophy as a current in the centre of discussion as to whether existence precedes essence or essence precedes existence. In order to remove the obstacles in front of human freedom, Sartre argues that existence precedes essence. If existence precedes essence, man himself, will create his essence, and thus will be responsible for his actions. In this way of thinking, there is no necessity for the existence of God. According to Avicenna, the source of essence (māhiyya) is God himself as a necessary being. Therefore, man is not the source of his own existence, thus it is impossible to argue a concept of unlimited freedom. According to him, the physical and psychological necessity of universe is a result of metaphysical necessity, since God is the necessary being. In this article, the questions whether ‘the I’ of man can be regarded, according to Avicenna, as a starting point and whether one can doubt about the nature of existence, its perception, its knowledge, about it are sought to answer. Besides, the possibility of making a connection between ‘existentialism’ that has been identified in philosophy with Sartre, which focuses on such concepts as ‘existence,’ ‘essence’ and ‘will’ and Avicenna, on basis of the fact that how Avicenna explained and grounded these terms much earlier than existentialism. Is it possible to make a comparison between ‘the conscience’ of existentialism and ‘flying man’ of Avicenna? It is also aimed in this article to make an assessment if there are distinctive and parallel points in the relationship established by Avicenna between existence and essence and the views put by Descartes and philosophers after him.
