Avicenna’s Outsourced Rationalism
Kaukua, J. (2020). Avicenna’s Outsourced Rationalism. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 58(2), 215-240. https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2020.0037
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Journal of the History of PhilosophyAuthors
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2020Copyright
© 2020 Journal of the History of Philosophy, Inc.
This paper refutes the claim that Avicenna's theory of science is empiricist in the robust, Lockean sense. I argue that his denial of innatism notwithstanding, the theory of formal identity, together with the metaphysical idea that the ontological structure of the sublunary world is grounded in the active intellect, commits Avicenna to a peculiar kind of rationalism in which the ultimate source of knowledge is an intellect, albeit one extraneous to the human mind. I then introduce two hitherto insufficiently discussed texts to challenge this conclusion. In the end, I claim that although this new material may provide some evidence for a robust empiricism in Avicenna, its consequences remained uncharted by him, and that some of his theological adversaries put forth a more radical kind of empiricism.
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Johns Hopkins University PressISSN Search the Publication Forum
0022-5053Keywords
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European Commission; Research Council of FinlandFunding program(s)
ERC Consolidator Grant; Research costs of Academy Research Fellow, AoF![](/themes/JYX2/images/funders/erc_logo_thumb.jpg)
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Suomen Akatemia 304614, ERC 682779License
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