Al-Suhrawardī’s Critique of Ibn Sīnā’s Refutation of the Platonic Forms

Abstract

Aristotle’s denunciation of his long-time teacher Plato’s theory of Forms, one of the most essential elements of the latter’s metaphysical thought, has resonated throughout the general history of philosophy and in the literature of classical Islamic philosophy. One example of its influence on Islamic thought is the dispute between Ibn Sīnā and al-Suhrawardī on the reality of the Forms. Ibn Sīnā, who, with al-Fārābī and Ibn Rushd, was one of the most important figures of Islamic Peripateticism, produced a detailed refutation of the theory of Platonic Forms modeled after Aristotle’s. Al-Suhrawardī, founder of the Illuminationist School, the second major Islamic philosophical tradition, revered Plato as an ideal philosopher primarily for his mystical character and intuitionist epistemology, regarding him as the greatest of all philosophers. Al-Suhrawardī owed many of the essential components of his own metaphysical system to Plato. Therefore, he made great intellectual efforts to confute Ibn Sīnā’s criticisms of the theory of Platonic Forms using Ibn Sīnā’s own philosophy. This article is intended to give an exposition of al-Suhrawardī’s efforts.

Keywords

• Plato
• Aristotle
• the theory of Forms
• Ibn Sīnā
• al-Suhrawardī
• philosophical criticism

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