Aristotle’s Dunamis Transformed: On Avicenna’s Conception of Natural Isti‘dad and Tahayyu’
Journal Title: Nazariyat İslam Felsefe ve Bilim Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi - Year 2015, Vol 2, Issue 3
Abstract
Avicennan theory of isti‘dād and tahayyu’ is one of the most important components of Avicenna’s natural philosophy and this theory achieves important revisions on Aristotelian conception of dunamis, but up to now received little attention in the secondary literature. In order to arrive at a correct understanding of Avicenna’s theory of isti‘dād, this article analyzes the aforementioned concepts in relation to the division of essential possibility and possibility in the form of propensity and tries to find an answer to the question “what types of transformations the concept have undergone in comparison to the Aristotelian dunamis?”. In this context, questions on whether the usage of the terms isti‘dād and tahayyu’, which cannot be found in Greek-Arabic translations of Aristotle’s texts, points to a simple passage to a new scientific terminology or there occurred a new conceptual framework and it forced introduction of such a new vocabulary are discussed in comparison to Aristotle’s division of dunamis-heksis, Alexander of Aphrodisias’ theory of natural powers and eventually Simplicius’ and Philoponus’ Neoplatonic conception of epitêdeiotês.
Authors and Affiliations
İbrahim Halil Üçer
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP296287
- DOI 10.15808/Nazariyat.2.3.M0016
- Views 197
- Downloads 0
A New Source for Al-‘Amirı Studies: al-Majalis al-sab‘ bayna al-Shaykh wa al-‘Amirı
The unique copy of al-Majālis al-sab‘ bayna al-Shaykh wa al-‘Āmirī (Ragıp Paşa Library 1461, ff. 150a-162b) consists of seven sessions including fourty-one questions and answers. While the name of al-‘Āmirī (d. 381/992)...
Reason and Morality: The Source of Morality in Aristotle and al-Fārābī, Hümeyra Özturan
Hümeyra Özturan, Reason and Morality: The Source of Morality in Aristotle and al-Fārābī [Akıl ve Ahlâk: Aristoteles ve Fârâbî’de Ahlâkın Kaynağı], London: Classic Publications, 2014, 254 pages, ISBN: 6055245221
From Faculties to Functions: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Critique of Internal Senses
One of the basic questions of the classical theory of soul is the theory of internal senses. It is Avicenna who gave this theory its most elaborate form. While he effectively revised the theory of internal senses that he...
The Emergence of the Distinction between Complete and Incomplete Causes from Avicenna to al-Abhari
In this study, I explore the historical stages of the development of the distinction between complete and incomplete causes (al-ʿilla al-tāmma and al-ʿilla al-nāqiṣa), which first emerged during the thirteenth century an...
Intellecting the Intellected: An Examination on the Interpretation of “the Second Intelligibles” in Islamic Tradition of Logic and its Reception during the Ottoman Period
The interpretation of the “second intelligibles” (al-ma‘qūlāt al-thāniya/al-ma‘qūlāt al-thawānī), as a term which is highly sophisticated and closely related to many philosophical disciplines, began with al-Fārābī and co...