Avicenna on Equivocity and Modulation: A Reconsideration of the asmÄʾ mushakkika (and tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d)
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Abstract
This study investigates Avicennaâs conception of philosophical terminology through an analysis of the relation between equivocity (ishtirÄk) and modulation (tashkÄ«k) and by drawing evidence from a broad array of logical, physical, and metaphysical texts. In so doing, it also re-examines the notion of the modulation of existence (tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d). Although the intrinsic definitional ambiguity of tashkÄ«k makes it possible to approach it alternatively through the lens of univocity and equivocity, there are strong textual and philosophical reasons to believe that Avicenna preferred to regard tashkÄ«k as a kind of moderate equivocity, as opposed to both univocity and a kind of pure or absolute equivocity. As a corollary, it is preferable to construe tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d as a âmodulated equivocity of beingâ rather than as a âmodulated univocity of being.â On the one hand, this underscores the continuity with Aristotleâs theory of pros hen predication and its late-antique Greek and early Arabic reception, which Avicenna, as heir to a long commentatorial tradition, reinterprets in his own way. On the other hand, the reading of the asmÄʾ mushakkika and tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d proposed here may explain some of the origins of the ontological debates on the construal of existence that developed from the post-classical reception of Avicennaâs works.
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Avicenna on Equivocity and Modulation: A Reconsideration of the asmÄʾ mushakkika (and tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d)
In: OriensSearch for other papers by Damien Janos in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This study investigates Avicennaâs conception of philosophical terminology through an analysis of the relation between equivocity (ishtirÄk) and modulation (tashkÄ«k) and by drawing evidence from a broad array of logical, physical, and metaphysical texts. In so doing, it also re-examines the notion of the modulation of existence (tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d). Although the intrinsic definitional ambiguity of tashkÄ«k makes it possible to approach it alternatively through the lens of univocity and equivocity, there are strong textual and philosophical reasons to believe that Avicenna preferred to regard tashkÄ«k as a kind of moderate equivocity, as opposed to both univocity and a kind of pure or absolute equivocity. As a corollary, it is preferable to construe tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d as a âmodulated equivocity of beingâ rather than as a âmodulated univocity of being.â On the one hand, this underscores the continuity with Aristotleâs theory of pros hen predication and its late-antique Greek and early Arabic reception, which Avicenna, as heir to a long commentatorial tradition, reinterprets in his own way. On the other hand, the reading of the asmÄʾ mushakkika and tashkÄ«k al-wujÅ«d proposed here may explain some of the origins of the ontological debates on the construal of existence that developed from the post-classical reception of Avicennaâs works.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1605 | 241 | 34 |
| Full Text Views | 227 | 9 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 584 | 20 | 0 |
