Research on the Neoplatonic System of Avicenna’s Thought on Ethics

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Tarbiat Modares University, Philosophy, Post-Doc

2 A philosophy professor at Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

 This paper deals with Avicenna’s intellectual system in ethics and shows that his ethical system emerges in a totally Neoplatonic structure. Moreover, I show that he uses many Neoplatonic concepts inside this intellectual system. In the most important stage, to disclose the Neoplatonic system of Avicenna’s thought in ethics, I show that his ethics have levels as the most important property of a Neoplatonic system of thought in all its dimensions, from the point where he starts the discussion of ethics to where he discusses the ultimate aim of the ethical act. The presence of levels in Avicenna’s work is so important that one cannot have a correct understanding of his ethics without attention to them. In his thought, levels are examined in three stages according to Neoplatonic patterns: sensible, imaginable, and intelligible level. That means, all the aspects of Avicenna’s ethics like linguistics, metaphysics, epistemology, anthropology, theories, and moral duties, should be examined on three levels: the sensible, imaginable and, intelligible. In the next step, I attend to the concepts he uses from Neoplatonic thought and has employed them in his intellectual system. Besides the levels, many of these kinds of Neoplatonic concepts have been involved in forming this intellectual system.

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History

  • Receive Date: 27 November 2022
  • Revise Date: 02 January 2023
  • Accept Date: 08 March 2023

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