Avicenna and Thomas Aquinas on the Possibility of Talking about God

Abstract

The most important claim of the thesis of the divine simplicity is that the daily expressions of language, which are constructed in reference to the material and composite beings, are not deep enough in the meaning, to the degree that one may not directly use them when talking about God. This claim, which is about the meaning mode of references to God and the insufficiency of the form of reference, has brought about the problem of what sort of language must be used when talking about God. This study addresses the question of what kind and to what degree the resemblance of the caused beings to the final cause (God) – a resemblance that they possess in their natures – allows human beings to talk about the final cause. While the study presents an analysis of the views of Avicenna and Aquinas on talking about God, examining the differences and similarities between them, it will not give a detailed account of their dispute on the distinction between essence and existence in God.

References

1. Acar, Rahim, Creation: A Comparative Study Between Avicenna’s and Aquinas’ Positions (PhD dissertation; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2002).
2. Aquinas, Thomas, Commentary on the Metaphysics of Aristotle, 2 vols., (translated into English by John P. Rowan; Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery Company, 1961).
3. Aquinas, Thomas, Compendium Theologiae ad fratrem Reginaldum socium suum carissimum, in Opuscula theologica, vol. I: De re dogmatica et morali (CT I) (ed. Raimundo A. Verardo; Turin, Rome: Marietti, 1954).
4. Aquinas, Thomas, De Principiis Naturae (introduction and critical text by John J. Pauson; Fribourg: Société Philosophique & Leuven: E. Nauwelaerts, 1950).
5. Aquinas, Thomas, Divi Thomae Aquinatis Summa Theologica I (ST I), 6 vols., (Rome: Ex Typographia Senatus, 1886-1887).
6. Aquinas, Thomas, Expositio super Librum Boethii de Trinitate (ed. Bruno Decker; Leiden: Brill, 1955)
7. Aquinas, Thomas, Le “De ente et Essentia” de S. Thomas d’Aquin (ed. Marie-Dominique Roland-Gosselin; Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1948).
8. Aquinas, Thomas, Quaestiones Disputatae De Potentia (DP) in Quaestiones Disputatae (8th rev. edn., vol.II: ed. P. Bazzi et al.; Turin & Rome: Mariette, 1949).

9. Aquinas, Thomas, Quaestiones Disputatae De Veritate (DV) in Quaestiones Disputatae (8th rev. edn., vol. I: ed. Raymundi Spiazzi; Turin & Rome: Mariette, 1949).
10. Aquinas, Thomas, Scriptum super libros Sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi episcopi Parisiensis (Sententiae I) (vol. I-II: ed. R. P. Mandonnet; Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1929; vol. III-IV: ed. Maria Fabianus Moos; Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1933, 1947).
11. Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Contra Gentiles (SCG) , (as the vols. XIII-XV of the series of “Sancti Thomae Aquinatis Doctoris Angelici opera omnia iussu impensaque Leonis XIII P.M. edita”; Rome: Typis Riccardi Garroni, 1918-1930).
12. Aquinas, Thomas, In librum beati Dionysii De divinis nominibus expositio (ed. Ceslai Pera; Turin & Rome: Marietti, 1950).
13. Aristotle, Categoriae (=Categories) (translated into English by E. M. Edghill), in Richard McKeon (ed.), The Basic Works of Aristotle (New York, NY: Random House, 1941), 7-37.
14. Aristotle, De Anima (translated into English by J. A. Smith), in Richard McKeon (ed.), The Basic Works of Aristotle (New York, NY: Random House, 1941), I, 533-603.
15. Aristotle, Metaphysics (translated into English by Richard Hope; Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1960).
16. ʿĀṣī, Ḥasan, al-Tafsīr al-Qurʾānī wa-l-lugha al-ṣūfiyya fī falsafat Ibn Sīnā (Beirut: al-Muʾassasa al-Jāmiʿiyya, 1983).
17. Fakhry, Majid, History of Islamic Philosophy (2nd edn., London: Longman & New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1983).
18. Farrer, Austin Marsden, Finite and Infinite: A Philosophical Essay (Westminster, UK: Dacre Press, 1959).
19. al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, al-Iqtisād fī al-iʿtiqād (ed. ʿAlī Bū Mulḥim; Beirut: Dār wa-Maktabat al-Hilāl, 2000).
20. al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, Kīmyā-yi saʿādat [Kimyāʾ al-saʿāda], 2 vols., (ed. Ḥusayn Khidīwjam; Tehran: Intishārāt-i ʿIlmī va Farhangī, 1382 HS.).
21. al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, al-Mustaṣfā min ʿilm al-uṣūl (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.).
22. Gilson, Etienne, The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (New York, NY: Random House, 1956).
23. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt: Qism 3: al-Ilāhiyyāt (ed. Sulaymān Dunyā; Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1960).
24. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, Kitāb al-Najāt fī l-ḥikma al-manṭiqiyya wa-l-ṭabīʿiyya wa-l-ilāhiyya (ed. Mājid Fakhrī; Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda, 1985).
25. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, Kitāb al-Shifāʾ: Ilāhiyyāt I-II (eds. George C. Anawati, Ibrāhīm Madkūr, and Saʿīd Zayd; Cairo: al-Hayʾa al-ʿĀmma li-l-Kitāb, 1975).
26. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, al-Mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād (ed. ʿAbd Allāh Nūrānī, Tehran: Muʾassasa-i Muṭālaʿāt-i Islāmī, 1363 HS. [1984]).
27. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, al-Risāla al-ʿarshiyya fī tawḥīdihī taʿālā wa-ṣifātihī, in Majmūʿ rasāʾil al-Sheikh al-Raʾīs (Hyderabad: Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 1354 H.).
28. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, al-Taʿlīqāt (ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Badawī; Qum: Maktabat al-Iʿlām al-Islāmī, n.d.).
29. Morewedge, Parviz, The Metaphysica of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā): A Critical Translation-Commentary and Analysis of Fundamental Ar-guments in Avicenna’s Metaphysica in the Dānish Nāma-i ʿalāʾī (The Book of Scientific Knowledge) (New York, NY: Co-lumbia University Press, 1973).
30. Rocca, Gregory, “The Distinction between res Significata and Modus Significandi in Aquinas’s Theological Epistemology,” The Thomist 55 (1991), 173-197.
31. Wippel, John F., Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1995).
32. Wolfson, Harry A., “Avicenna, Algazali and Averroes on Divine Attributes,” in his, Studies in the History of Philosophy and Religion, Volume I (ed. Isadora Twersky and George H. Williams; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973), 143-169.
33. Wolfson, Harry A., “The Amphibolous Terms in Aristotle, Arabic Philosophy and Maimonides,” in his, Studies in the History of Philosophy and Religion, Volume I (ed. Isadora Twersky and George H. Williams; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973), 455-477.
34. Zedler, Beatrica H., “Saint Thomas and Avicenna in the ‘De Potentia Dei’,” Traditio 6 (1948), 105-159.