A New Approach on The Possibility of Knowing the Essence of Things According to Avicennian Philosophy

Abstract

Ibn Sina holds two radically different views towards the possibility of knowing the essence of things; in some of his writings, he argues in a way that he believes the knowledge of the essence of the things is possible, though it contains difficulties. In some other, on the contrary, he states human knowledge is limited to the accidents and attributes of things. So there is no possibility of knowledge of the essence. In order to shed light on this controversial issue, one should focus on the ontological and epistemological basis of Ibn Sina philosophy. Thus, the findings of the research reveal, on one hand and based on Ibn Sina philosophy, the subjects are classified according to their achievement of the epistemological degree of the realms of sense, imagination, and intellect. And on the other, the ability of simplicity or composition of the subjects shows the number of people who succeed in knowing the essence of things or fail in it. In other words, the access to the higher degree of intellectual knowledge and the ability of composition lead to make the knowledge of essence possible, while remaining in the degree of the sense or imagination and simplicity of subject cause fail in knowing the essence.

Keywords

• knowledge of essence
• nominal definition
• imagination
• intellect
• simplicity
• combination
• ibn sina