Ibn Sina's Remarks and Admonitions: Physics and Metaphysics: An Analysis and Annotated Translation

249 Pages·2014·1.5 MB·English

by  Shams C. Inati

’
Ibn Sinas
Remarks & Admonitions:
Physics & Metaphysics
AN ANALYSIS AND
ANNOTATED TRANSLATION
Shams Inati
Ibn Sina’s Remarks and Admonitions:
Physics and Metaphysics

Ibn Sina’s Remarks and Admonitions:
Physics and Metaphysics
an analysis and
annotated translation
Shams Inati
Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Avicenna, 980–1037.
[Isharat wa-al-tanbihat. Part 2–3. English]
Ibn Sina’s Remarks and admonitions: physics and metaphysics: an analysis
and annotated translation/
Shams C. Inati.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-16616-4 (cloth: alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-231-53742-1 (e-book)
1. Islamic philosophy—Early works to 1800. 2. Philosophy, Medieval.
3. Physics—Early works to 1800. 4. Metaphysics—Early works to 1800.
I. Inati, Shams Constantine. II. Title.
B751.I62E5 2014
181'.5—dc23 2013041367
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-
free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that
may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
To my sister, Aminy Inati Audi, who has shared my pas-
sion for knowledge about the universe and the human
place in it and who has supported my intellectual efforts
and inspired me with her limitless determination, deep
wisdom, and boundless love for all things.

Contents
Preface  26
Analysis of the Text 1
PArT Two: PhYSICS 57
Prologue 59
First Class: on the Substance of Bodies
1. Delusion and Remark: On the Composition of Bodies 59
2. Delusion and Remark: Another Theory Concerning the
Composition of Bodies of Infinite Parts 60
3. Admonition: Evidence for the Unsoundness of the
Above Theories 61
4. A Follow-up: On the Infinity of the Imaginative Division
of Bodies 61
5. Admonition: Regarding Movement and Time as Also
Divisible to Infinity 62
6. Remark: Regarding the Difference Between That Which Is
Continuous in Itself and That Which Has the Capacity for
Continuity 62
viii—Contents
7. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Unity of the
Nature of Corporeal Extension in Itself 62
8. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Ways in Which
Disjunction Is Possible for That Which Is Continuous 63
9. Admonition: Concerning Why a Species for Which It Is
Possible to Have a Plurality of Individuals May Be
Obstructed from Having More Than One 63
10. A Follow-up: Concerning the First Matter as That Which
in Itself Has No Quantity and in Which Any Quantity
Can Subsist 64
11. Remark: Concerning the Evidence for the Finitude
of Distances 64
12. Remark: Concerning the Necessary Accompaniment
of Shape to Corporeal Extension 65
13. Delusion and Remark: Concerning the Cause of the Shape
of the Sphere 66
14. Admonition: Concerning the Cause of Position 67
15. Admonition: Concerning the Necessity of Form for
Position 67
16. A Follow-up: Conclusion Regarding the Necessity
of Corporeal Form for Matter 68
17. Admonition: Concerning Matter as Also Not Free from
Forms Other Than Corporeal Ones 68
18. Remark: Concerning the Fact That, in Addition to Matter,
There Is Necessity for External Determinants of the
Corporeal Form 69
19. Delusion and Admonition: On the Joining of Matter
and Form as Necessary for the Actual Subsistence
of Matter 69
20. Remark: On the Departure of Forms from One Matter
to Another 69
21. Remark: Concerning the Demonstration That the Corporeal
Forms Cannot Be Independent or Intermediary Causes
of Matter 70
Contents—ix
22. Delusion and Admonition: Refutation of the Claim
That Matter Is the Cause of the Existence of the Form 71
23. Remark: Concerning the Subsistance of Matter During
the Process of Form Substitution 71
24. Remark: Concerning the Priority of Form to Matter 71
25. Remark: On the Manner in Which Form Is Prior 72
26. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Priority in
Essence of the Cause to the Effect Despite the Temporal
Simultaneity of the Two 72
27. A Follow-up: The Inference to Be Drawn Regarding the
Similarity Between the Priority of the Form Which Is
Inseparable from Its Matter and That Which Is Separable 73
28. Admonition: The Priority of the Body to the Surface, the
Surface to the Line, and the Line to the Point 73
29. Admonition: On the Absence of the Interpenetration
of Corporeal Dimensions 74
30. Remark: Concerning Quantitative Distances Among
Disjoined Bodies 75
31. Admonition: On the Nonexistence of Void 75
32. Remark: On the Existence of Direction 75
33. Remark: Direction Is of a Sensible, Not an Intelligible Nature 76
34. Remark: Direction Is an Undivided Extremity of Dimension
and Toward Which Movement Can Be Made 76
35. Delusion and Admonition: Concerning the Concrete
Existence of Direction as Opposed to Its Conceptual Being 77
Second Class: on the Directions and
Their Primary and Secondary Bodies
1. Remark: Concerning the Directions That Change and Those
That Do Not 78
2. Remark: Concerning the Determination of the Position of
a Direction 78
3. Remark: Concerning the Body That Determines the Direction 79