The Metaphysics of The Healing [Bilingual Edition] 0934893772, 9780934893770

Avicenna, the most influential of Islamic philosophers, produced The Healing as his magnum opus on his religious and pol

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The Metaphysics of The Healing [Bilingual Edition]
 0934893772, 9780934893770

Table of contents :
Cover
Title Page
Contents
Foreword to the Series
Acknowledgments
Note on Conventions
Translator's Introduction
Key to the Arabic Notes
The Metaphysics of The Healing
Book One
Chapter 1: On beginning to seek the subject of first philosophy so that its individual quiddity among the sciences becomes evident
Chapter 2: On attaining the subject matter of this science
Chapter 3: On the benefit of this science, the order in which it is studied, and its name
Chapter 4: On the totality of matters discussed in this science
Chapter 5: On indicating the existent, the thing, and their first division, wherewith attention is directed to the objective thought
Chapter 6: On commencing a discourse on the Necessary Existent and the possible existent; that the Necessary Existent has no cause; that the possible existent is caused; that the Necessary Existent has no equivalent in existence and is not dependent in existence on another
Chapter 7: That the Necessary Existent is one
Chapter 8: On clarifying the meaning of "truth" and "veracity"; defense of the primary statements in true premises
Book Two
Chapter 1: On making known substance and its divisions in a universal way
Chapter 2: On ascertaining corporeal substance and what is composed from it
Chapter 3: That corporeal matter is not devoid of form
Chapter 4: On placing form prior to matter in the rank of existence
Book Three
Chapter 1: On indicating what ought to be investigated regarding the state of the nine categories and about their accidental nature
Chapter 2: On discussing the one
Chapter 3: On ascertaining the one and the many and showing that number is an accident
Chapter 4: The measures are accidents
Chapter 5: On ascertaining the nature of number, defining its species, and showing its beginnings
Chapter 6: On the opposition of the one and the many
Chapter 7: That qualities are accidents
Chapter 8: On knowledge, that it is an accident
Chapter 9: On qualities that are in quantities; proof of their existence
Chapter 10: On the relative
Book Four
Chapter 1: On the prior and the posterior, and on origination
Chapter 2: On potency, act, power, and impotence, and on proving the existence of matter for every generated thing
Chapter 3: On the complete, the incomplete, and what is above completion; on the whole and on the total
Book Five
Chapter 1: On general things and the manner of their existence
Chapter 2: On the manner in which universality comes to belong to universal natures; completing the discussion of this topic; and on the difference between the whole and the part, the universal and the particular
Chapter 3: On differentiating between genus and matter
Chapter 4: On the manner in which ideas extraneous to genus enter its nature
Chapter 5: On the species
Chapter 6: On making differentia known and ascertaining its nature
Chapter 7: On making known the proper relationship between definition and the thing defined
Chapter 8: On definition
Chapter 9: On the appropriate relation between definition and its parts
Book Six
Chapter 1: On the division of causes and their states
Chapter 2: On resolving doubts directed against what the adherents of true doctrine hold, to the effect that every cause coexists with its effect; and on ascertaining the true statements about the efficient cause
Chapter 3: On the compatibility between the efficient causes and their effects
Chapter 4: Concerning the other causes — the elemental, the formal, and the final
Chapter 5: On establishing the purpose and resolving skeptical doubts uttered in refuting it; the difference between purpose and necessity; making known the manner in which purpose is prior to the rest of the causes and the manner in which it is posterior
Book Seven
Chapter 1: On the appendages of unity by way of haecceity and its divisions; the appendages of multiplicity by way of otherness, difference, and the well-known kinds of opposition
Chapter 2: On relating the doctrine of the ancient philosophers regarding the exemplars and principles of mathematics and the reason calling for this; revealing the origin of the ignorance that befell them, by reason of which they deviated from the truth
Chapter 3: On refuting the doctrine of the separate entities of mathematical objects and exemplars
Book Eight
Chapter 1: On the finitude of the efficient and the receptive causes
Chapter 2: Concerning doubts adhering to what has been said, and the resolution thereof
Chapter 3: On showing the finitude of the final and formal causes; on proving the existence of the first principle in an absolute manner; on making decisive the statement on the first cause absolutely and on the first cause restrictedly, showing that what is absolutely a first cause is a cause for the rest of the causes
Chapter 4: On the primary attributes of the principle that is necessary in its existence
Chapter 5: As though a confirmation and a recapitulation of what has been previously discussed concerning the unity of the Necessary Existent and all His attributes, by way of conclusion
Chapter 6: That He is perfect — indeed, above perfection — good, bestower of existence on everything after Him; that He is truth and pure intellect; that He apprehends intellectually all things, and the manner of this; how He knows Himself; how He knows universals; how He knows particulars, and the manner in which it is not permitted to say that He apprehends them
Chapter 7: On the relation of the intelligibles to Him; on making it clear that His positive and negative attributes do not necessitate multiplicity in His essence; that to Him belongs supreme splendor, the loftiest majesty, and infinite glory; on explaining in detail the state of intellectual pleasure
Book Nine
Chapter 1: On the attribute of the efficacy of the First Principle
Chapter 2: That the proximate mover of the heavens is neither a nature nor an intellect but a soul, and that the remote principle is an intellect
Chapter 3: On the manner in which acts proceed from the lofty principles so that, from this, one would know what one ought to know concerning the separate movers that are intellectually apprehended in themselves and are loved
Chapter 4: On the ordering of the existence of the intellect, celestial souls, and celestial bodies that proceed from the First Principle
Chapter 5: On the state of the generation of the elements by the first causes
Chapter 6: On providence, showing the manner of the entry of evil in divine predestination
Chapter 7: Concerning "the return", the hereafter
Book Ten
Chapter 1: A Brief statement on the beginning and "the return"; on inspirations, dreams, and prayers that are answered, and celestial punishments; on the state of prophecy and of astrological predictions
Chapter 2: On the proof of prophecy; the manner of the Prophet's call to God, exalted be He; and the "return" to Him
Chapter 3: On acts of worship: their benefits in this world and the next
Chapter 4: On establishing the city, the household — that is, marriage — and the universal laws pertaining to these matters
Chapter 5: Concerning the caliph and the imam: the necessity of obeying them; remarks on politics, transactions, and morals
Notes to the English Text
Translator's Introduction
Book One, Chapter 1
Book One, Chapter 2
Book One, Chapter 3
Book One, Chapter 4
Book One, Chapter 5
Book One, Chapter 6
Book One, Chapter 7
Book One, Chapter 8
Book Two, Chapter 1
Book Two, Chapter 2
Book Two, Chapter 3
Book Two, Chapter 4
Book Three, Chapter 1
Book Three, Chapter 2
Book Three, Chapter 3
Book Three, Chapter 4
Book Three, Chapter 5
Book Three, Chapter 6
Book Three, Chapter 7
Book Three, Chapter 8
Book Three, Chapter 9
Book Three, Chapter 10
Book Four, Chapter 1
Book Four, Chapter 2
Book Four, Chapter 3
Book Five, Chapter 1
Book Five, Chapter 2
Book Five, Chapter 3
Book Five, Chapter 4
Book Five, Chapter 6
Book Five, Chapter 7
Book Five, Chapter 8
Book Five, Chapter 9
Book Six, Chapter 1
Book Six, Chapter 2
Book Six, Chapter 3
Book Six, Chapter 4
Book Six, Chapter 5
Book Seven, Chapter 1
Book Seven, Chapter 2
Book Seven, Chapter 3
Book Eight, Chapter 1
Book Eight, Chapter 2
Book Eight, Chapter 3
Book Eight, Chapter 4
Book Eight, Chapter 5
Book Eight, Chapter 6
Book Eight, Chapter 7
Book Nine, Chapter 1
Book Nine, Chapter 2
Book Nine, Chapter 3
Book Nine, Chapter 4
Book Nine, Chapter 5
Book Nine, Chapter 6
Book Nine, Chapter 7
Book Ten, Chapter 1
Book Ten, Chapter 2
Book Ten, Chapter 3
Book Ten, Chapter 4
Book Ten, Chapter 5
Bibliography
Index

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