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Arabic sciences and philosophy
doi:10.1017/S0957423920000090
AVICENNA ON GRASPING MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS
Department of Philosophy
University of Birmingham
Email: m.s.zarepour@bham.ac.uk
Abstract.
Résumé.
1. INTRODUCTION
ontological
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge UniversityPress. Thisis an Open Access article,
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epistemological
a priori
experimental sciences
Studia Islamica
The unity of sci-
ence in the Arabic tradition
Oriens
Interpreting Avicenna: Critical essays
Kitāb al-burhān Raison
et démonstration: Les commentaires médiévaux sur les
Koroth
Before and after Avicenna: Proceedings of the rst conference of the
Avicenna Study Group
Interpreting Avicenna: Critical essays
As-
pects of Avicenna
The unity of science in the Arabic tradition
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taṣawwur
taṣdīq
The healing Al-šifāʾ
Al-manṭiqAl-burhān
Al-naǧāt
Dānešnāme-ye ʿAlāʾīManṭeq
The
journal of philosophy
taṣawwur
taṣdīq
Logic and
Aristotle’s rhetoric and poetics in medieval Arabic philosophy
taṣawwur
taṣdīq The
Muslim world
taṣawwur taṣdīq
Logic and Aristotle’s rhetoric
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mufāraq
maḥsūs
wahm
concept empiricism
tajrīd
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2. PRELIMINARIES
Di-
alogue
Arabic sciences and philosophy
The Routledge companion to thought exper-
iments Mathematics and the mind: An
introduction into Ibn Sīnā’s theory of knowledge
Arabic theology, Arabic philosophy: From the many to the one. Essays in celebration of
Richard M. Frank
Oriens
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ʾaʿdād maqādīr
The Metaphysics of the Healing
ʿaraḍ
The Metaphysics of the Healing
The Metaphysics of the Healing
denitions
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quwwa
dunamis
ontological
epistemological
The Physics of the Healing
Al-šifāʾAl-manṭiqAl-madhal
The Metaphysics of the Healing
Isagoge
Shifāʾ Journal for the history of Arabic science
The philosophical re-
view
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The Cam-
bridge history of medieval philosophy
The fac-
ulties: A history
Maqāla fī al-nafs ʿalā sunna al-ihtiṣār
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft
Kitāb al-nafs Avicenna’s De anima: Being
the psychological part of
Al-naǧāt
Avicenna’s Psychology
Al-išārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt bi-šarḥ
al-ṬūsīAl-ṭabīʿīyāt
Remarks and admonitions: Physics and meta-
physics
Fī al-nafs al-nāṭiqa
Aḥwāl al-nafs: Risāla fī
al-nafs wa baqāʾihā wa maʿādihā
Avicenna
and the Aristotelian tradition
Interpreting
Avicenna: Science and philosophy in medieval Islam
Avicenna
Avicenna’s De anima
basīṭ
Oxford studies in medieval philosophy
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ẓāhirī
ṣuwar
bāṭinī
maʿnā
volitional
motion
Avicenna’s De anima
quwwa ḥiss
Maʿnā
Philosophy East and West
wahm
Dialogue
Quaestio Avicenna on sub-
jectivity: A philosophical study
maʿnā intentio
maʿnā
in
maʿnā
Avicenna’s in the Latin West
maʿnā
maʿnā
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hayʾa
al-maḥsūs
tajrīd
Avicenna’s De anima
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ḥiss muštarak
muṣṣawira
hayāl
mutahayyila
Intellect and imagination in
medieval philosophy
Harvard theological review
Documenti e studi sulla tradizione losoca medievale
Tópicos
Oxford studies in medieval
philosophy
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mufakkira
wahm
ḥāẓa
Topoi
Philo-
sophical psychology in Arabic thought and the Latin aristotelianism of the thirteenth
century
Avicenna’s De anima
Al-naǧāt
wahm
Intellect and imagination in medieval philosophy
Avicenna on subjectivity
Journal of the history of philosophy
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ʿaql hayūlānī
ʿaql bi-l-quwwa ʿaql bi-l-malaka
ʿaql bi-l-ʿl ʿaql
mustafād
Avicenna’s De anima
emanationist
ʿaql
faʿʿāl Alfarabi,
Avicenna, & Averroes, on intellect
Avicenna
Debates
in medieval philosophy: Essential readings and contemporary responses
abstractionist
Aspects of Avicenna
Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosoph-
ical Association
De anima Enneads
Theories of perception in medieval and early
modern philosophy
Philosophers’ imprint
material
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maʿqulāt
ʾūlā
3. FORMING MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS
The Metaphysics
of the Healing
al-taʿlīmī al-maḥsūs
Avicenna’s De anima Aḥwāl al-nafs
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fī
al-maḥsūs taʿlīmī
maʿdūd
kaṯīr
tahayyul
taʿaqqul
The Metaphysics of the Healing
maʿdūd
mufāraq
The Monist
Journal of Islamic philosophy
Journal of the American Philosophical Association
Al-burhān Posterior
analytics
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modest
a posteriori
ṭrīyāt
Philosophy East and West
Philosophy East and West
Philosophy East and West
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maḥsūs
sensible mathematical objects
al-maḥsūsāt al-muštaraka
Avicenna’s De anima
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wahm
tujarradu
Avicenna’s De anima
The Physics of the
Healing
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taṣawwuruhū
bi-l-tawahhum
talḥaqu
Conceiving its concept
The Metaphysics
of the Healing
Al-madhal
The Metaphysics of the Healing
miqdār
The Metaphysics of the
Healing ḥudūd
Al-madhal
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yanẓuru al-ʿadad
fī al-ṭabīʿa
estimative
estimation
maʿdūdāt
in fī al-maḥsūsāt
The Metaphysics of the Healing
Al-madhal
The Metaphysics of the Healing
Avicenna’s De anima
mudrak al-ḥiss ṣūra
al-wahm maʿnā
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maʿānī
The Salvation
in the sensible
al-maʿānī al-ghayr al-maḥsūsa al-mawjūda fī al-maḥsūsāt
al-juzʾīya
in
actually
in
in
in
in
Al-naǧāt Al-
išārāt wa-l-tanbīhātAl-ṭabīʿīyāt
in
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in The Metaphysics
of the Healing
The Metaphysics of the Healing
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ʾidrāk ḥaqīqa
mutamaṯṯal
kaṯīr
miṯāl
murtasam
all most
kaṯīr
Al-išārāt wa-l-tanbīhātAl-ṭabīʿīyāt
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reductio
ad absurdum
Al-išārāt wa-l-tanbīhātAl-ṭabīʿīyāt
Al-išārāt wa-l-tanbīhātAl-manṭiq
ʿanqāʾ
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie
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taʿrīf ḥadd
Avicenna’s De anima
The Metaphysics of the Healing
Bulletin de philosophie médiévale
Bulletin de philosophie médiévale
reductio ad absur-
dum
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ctionalist-abstractionist
literalist
4. PERCEIVING PERFECT MATHEMATICAL OBJECTS
The Metaphysics of the Healing
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ʿalā al-naḥw al-
maḥsūs
muḍarraṣ
literally
The Physics of the Healing
The Metaphysics of the Healing
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n
n
p200 =14.142135.. .
n
n
The Physics of the Healing
The
Physics of the Healing
mutakallimūn
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even though these are
never instantiated physically
even though again in the nitty-gritty world around
us none of these exists
bi-l-farḍ
taṣawwur
Al-madhal
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perceiving
constructing
Archiv für
Geschichte der Philosophie
Aristotle transformed:
The ancient commentators and their inuence
Philosophical review
Apeiron
mujarrad
The Physics of the Healing
abstracta
abstracta
māhīya
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as if
5. CONCLUSION
how
The Metaphysics of the Healing
literalism potentialism
Avicenna
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Acknowledgements.
Avicenna’s philosophy of mathematics
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