A Critical Reveiw on Gilson's Understanding of Ibn Sina's Ontology

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Ph. D Student in Philosophy in Jamia Al-Mustafa

Abstract

Étienne Gilson (1884-1978), a scholar of Medieval  ages who  shows much interest in Medieval  philosophers, especially in Thomas Aquinas,  in his famous work,  Being and Some Philosophers, gives an account of the  views  of Ibn Sina as a philosopher whose thoughts were highly influential in Middle Ages and and criticized  several problems of his philosophy including unconditioned quiddity, addition of existence to quiddity , essential contingency and  principle of causality. According to Gilson  unconditioned quiddity is inconceivable. The problem of existence as additional to quiddty is also  more a matter of religion  than that of philosophy. Essential contingency is  a contradictory assumption and the principle of causality leads to unfree-will of God Almighty.
The present article is to give first an account of what Gilson understands to be Ibn Sina's views in each problem and then deals with criticisms of  Gilson which in his view challenge the ontology of Ibn Sina. Finally a critical analysis of Gilson's  views as well as his critiques will be given.    

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