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

Year 2012, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 7 - 27, 29.09.2012
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.31.47

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.

References

  • Bekiryazıcı, Eyüp, Şihâbeddin Sühreverdî'nin Felsefesinde Ontoloji Problemi [The Ontology Problem in the Philosophy of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī] (PhD dissertation; Erzurum: Atatürk University, 2005).
  • Bigelow, John C., "Universals," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 10 vols., (ed. Edward Craig; London & New York: Routledge, 1998), IX, 539-544.
  • Dīnānī, Ghulām-Ḥusayn Ibrāhīmī, Qawāʿid-i Kullī-yi Falsafī dar Falsafa-i Islāmī, 2 vols., (Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1381 HS [2001]).
  • Erdoğan, İsmail, "Platon'un İdeler'ine Bazı İslam Düşünürlerince Yapılan Atıf ve Değerlendirmeler [Some Muslim Thinkers' References to and Assessments of Plato's Ideas]," Bilimname IV/1 (2004), 33-47.
  • Erdoğan, İsmail, "İşraki Düşüncede Türlerin Efendileri Meselesi [The Lords of Species in Ishrāqī Thought]," Dinî Araştırmalar [Religious Studies] VIII/23 (2005), 127-152.
  • Fine, Gail, On Ideas: Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, al-Najāt fī l-manṭiq wa-l-ilāhiyyāt, 2 vols., (edited by ʿAbd al-Rahmān ʿUmayra; Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1992).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, Kitâbu'ş-Şifâ: Metafizik [=Kitāb al-Shifāʾ: al-Ilāhiyyāt] , 2 vols, (translated into Turkish, with the original text, by Ekrem Demirli & Ömer Türker; Istanbul: Litera Yayıncılık, 2005).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, İşaretler ve Tembihler [=al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīḥāt] (translated into Turkish by Ali Durusoy, Muhittin Macit, and Ekrem Demirli; Istanbul: Litera Yayıncılık, 2005).
  • Kaya, Mahmut, "İşrâkıyye [Ishrāqiyya]," Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) [Turkish Religious Foundation Encyclopedia of Islam], XXIII, 435-438.
  • Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, "Mufassir-i ʿĀlam-i Ghurbat wa-Shahīd-i Ṭarīq-i Maʿrifat," in Ḥasan Sayyid ʿArab (ed.), Muntakhabī az Maqālāt-i Fārsī dar bāra-yi Shaykh-i Ishrāq Suhrawardī (Tehran: Shafīʿī, 1378 HS [2000]).
  • Okudan, Rifat, İşrak Filozofu Sühreverdî Maktûl ve Eserlerindeki Üslup ve Belağat [al-Suhrawardī al-Maqtūl, The Philosopher of Illumination, and His Style and Rhetoric in His Writings] (PhD dissertation; Isparta: Süleyman Demirel University, 2001).
  • Russell, Bertrand, History of Western Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1996).
  • Ryle, Gilbert, "Plato," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 8 vols in 4 vols., (ed. Paul Edwards; New York: Macmillan & The Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, repr. 1972), VI, 314-333.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, Kitāb al-talwīḥāt al-lawḥiyya wa-l-ʿarshiyya, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), I, 1-121.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, al-Muqāwamāt, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), I, 123-192.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, al-Mashāriʿ wa-l-muṭaraḥāt, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), I, 194-506.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), II, 1-260.
  • Woozley, A. David, "Universals," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 8 vols in 4 vols., (ed. Paul Edwards; New York: Macmillan & The Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, repr. 1972), VIII, 194-206.
  • Yörükan, Yusuf Ziya, Şihabeddin Sühreverdî ve Nur Heykelleri [Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī and His Hayākil al-Nūr] (translated from Old Turkish into Modern Turkish by Ahmet Kamil Cihan; Istanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 1998).
  • Yörükan, Yusuf Ziya, "Şeyh Suhreverdi'nin Felsefesi [The Philosophy of al-Shaykh al-Suhrawardī]," (translated from Old Turkish to Modern Turkish by Mustafa Bulut), Hikmet Yurdu: Düşünce Yorum Sosyal Bilimler Araştırma Dergisi [Hikmet Yurdu: A Research Journal on Thought, Interpretation, Social Sciences] III/5 (January-June 2010), 417-432.

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

Year 2012, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 7 - 27, 29.09.2012
https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.31.47

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.

References

  • Bekiryazıcı, Eyüp, Şihâbeddin Sühreverdî'nin Felsefesinde Ontoloji Problemi [The Ontology Problem in the Philosophy of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī] (PhD dissertation; Erzurum: Atatürk University, 2005).
  • Bigelow, John C., "Universals," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 10 vols., (ed. Edward Craig; London & New York: Routledge, 1998), IX, 539-544.
  • Dīnānī, Ghulām-Ḥusayn Ibrāhīmī, Qawāʿid-i Kullī-yi Falsafī dar Falsafa-i Islāmī, 2 vols., (Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1381 HS [2001]).
  • Erdoğan, İsmail, "Platon'un İdeler'ine Bazı İslam Düşünürlerince Yapılan Atıf ve Değerlendirmeler [Some Muslim Thinkers' References to and Assessments of Plato's Ideas]," Bilimname IV/1 (2004), 33-47.
  • Erdoğan, İsmail, "İşraki Düşüncede Türlerin Efendileri Meselesi [The Lords of Species in Ishrāqī Thought]," Dinî Araştırmalar [Religious Studies] VIII/23 (2005), 127-152.
  • Fine, Gail, On Ideas: Aristotle's Criticism of Plato's Theory of Forms (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, al-Najāt fī l-manṭiq wa-l-ilāhiyyāt, 2 vols., (edited by ʿAbd al-Rahmān ʿUmayra; Beirut: Dār al-Jīl, 1992).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, Kitâbu'ş-Şifâ: Metafizik [=Kitāb al-Shifāʾ: al-Ilāhiyyāt] , 2 vols, (translated into Turkish, with the original text, by Ekrem Demirli & Ömer Türker; Istanbul: Litera Yayıncılık, 2005).
  • Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī, İşaretler ve Tembihler [=al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīḥāt] (translated into Turkish by Ali Durusoy, Muhittin Macit, and Ekrem Demirli; Istanbul: Litera Yayıncılık, 2005).
  • Kaya, Mahmut, "İşrâkıyye [Ishrāqiyya]," Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi (DİA) [Turkish Religious Foundation Encyclopedia of Islam], XXIII, 435-438.
  • Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, "Mufassir-i ʿĀlam-i Ghurbat wa-Shahīd-i Ṭarīq-i Maʿrifat," in Ḥasan Sayyid ʿArab (ed.), Muntakhabī az Maqālāt-i Fārsī dar bāra-yi Shaykh-i Ishrāq Suhrawardī (Tehran: Shafīʿī, 1378 HS [2000]).
  • Okudan, Rifat, İşrak Filozofu Sühreverdî Maktûl ve Eserlerindeki Üslup ve Belağat [al-Suhrawardī al-Maqtūl, The Philosopher of Illumination, and His Style and Rhetoric in His Writings] (PhD dissertation; Isparta: Süleyman Demirel University, 2001).
  • Russell, Bertrand, History of Western Philosophy (London: Routledge, 1996).
  • Ryle, Gilbert, "Plato," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 8 vols in 4 vols., (ed. Paul Edwards; New York: Macmillan & The Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, repr. 1972), VI, 314-333.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, Kitāb al-talwīḥāt al-lawḥiyya wa-l-ʿarshiyya, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), I, 1-121.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, al-Muqāwamāt, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), I, 123-192.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, al-Mashāriʿ wa-l-muṭaraḥāt, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), I, 194-506.
  • al-Suhrawardī, Abū l-Futūḥ Shihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabash, Ḥikmat al-ishrāq, in idem., Majmūʿa-yi Muṣannafāt-i Shaykh-i Ishrāq (ed. Henry Corbin; Tehran: Pizhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa-Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1373 HS [1993]), II, 1-260.
  • Woozley, A. David, "Universals," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 8 vols in 4 vols., (ed. Paul Edwards; New York: Macmillan & The Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, repr. 1972), VIII, 194-206.
  • Yörükan, Yusuf Ziya, Şihabeddin Sühreverdî ve Nur Heykelleri [Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī and His Hayākil al-Nūr] (translated from Old Turkish into Modern Turkish by Ahmet Kamil Cihan; Istanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 1998).
  • Yörükan, Yusuf Ziya, "Şeyh Suhreverdi'nin Felsefesi [The Philosophy of al-Shaykh al-Suhrawardī]," (translated from Old Turkish to Modern Turkish by Mustafa Bulut), Hikmet Yurdu: Düşünce Yorum Sosyal Bilimler Araştırma Dergisi [Hikmet Yurdu: A Research Journal on Thought, Interpretation, Social Sciences] III/5 (January-June 2010), 417-432.
There are 21 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Religious Studies
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Tahir Uluç 0000-0003-3164-4194

Publication Date September 29, 2012
Submission Date February 27, 2012
Published in Issue Year 2012 Volume: 3 Issue: 1

Cite

ISNAD Uluç, Tahir. “Al-Suhrawardī’s Critique of Ibn Sīnā’s Refutation of the Platonic Forms”. Ilahiyat Studies 3/1 (September 2012), 7-27. https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2012.31.47.

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