Avicenna’s View on the Role of Practical Intellect in Performing Moral Action

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

* Assistant Professor. Department of Ethics, University of Qom, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

In Avicenna’s view, the practical intellect plays a basic and foundational role in producing moral action. By investigating this notion in the framework of Avicenna’s philosophy, we find that he regards perception and cognition as the main functions of the practical intellect. However, he considers this perception as particular, introducing it as different from the particularity of imaginary and estimative cognitions (animal perceptive faculties). This difference makes the action produced by an animal essentially different from the action produced by the practical intellect. This view, however, is contrary to the views of some other philosophers and theologians who disagree with him on the perceptive function of the practical intellect and maintain just a motivational function for it. In addition, Avicenna enumerates the following as other roles of the practical intellect in producing moral action: motivational and incentive function; dominance over motivational and inclinative (to or against) faculties, etc and being served by them; serving the speculative intellect and purifying, completing and refining the speculative intellect in the realm of the practical intellect. Many other points have also been mentioned in this regard within this article.

Keywords

Main Subjects


-  Aal Yasin, J., (1405 AH/1984). Al-Farabi fi Hududihi wa Rusumih. Beirut: Alam al-Kutub.
-  Abu Hamed al-Gazali, M., (1961). Maqasid al-Falasafah (Aims of the Philosophers). Qahira: Dar al-Ma‘areif.
-  Abu Hamid al-Gazali, M., (1409 AH/1988). Maarij al-Quds fi Madarij Marifat al-Nafs. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah.
-  Al-Farabi, M., (1364 AP/1985). Al-Fusul al-Muntazaah. Tehran: Maktabat al-Zahra.
-  Azdi, A., (1378 AP/1999). Kitab al-Ma’ (Book of Water). Tehran: Research Institute for Islamic & Complementary Medicine. Iran University of Medical Sciences.
-  Hashemi Shahroudi, M. H., (1417 AH/1996). Buhuth fi Ilm al-Usul (discussions regarding the principles of Jurusprudence). Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir Sadr’s Kharij Level lessons on Principles of Jurisprudence. . Qom: Taqrirat Matba‘at Farvardin.
-  Hosseini Zabidi, M. M., (1414 AH/1993)Taj al-Arus min Jawahir al-Qamus (Dictionary). Beirut: Dar al-Fikr.
-  Ibn al-Athir al-Jazari, M., (1367 AP/1988). Al-Nihayat fi Gharib al-Hadith wa al-Athar. Tehran: Esmailian Publication Institute.
-  Ibn Manzur, M., (1414 AH/1993)Lisan al-Arab (disctionary). Beirut: Dar al-Fikr - Dar Sadir.
-  Ibn Sina, H., (Avicenna) (1405 AH/1984). Al-Shifa’ (Tabiiyyat) [the Book of Healing. natural sciences). Qom: Ayatollah Mar‘ashi Najafi Library Publications.
-  Ibn Sina, H., (Avicenna). (1375 AP/1996). Al-Isharat wa al-Tanbihat (Remarks and Admonitions). Qom: Al-Balagha Publications.
-  Ibn Sina, H., (Avicenna). (1379 AP/2000). Al-Najat (the Book of Salvation). Tehran: University of Tehran Press.
-  Ibn Sina, H., (Avicenna). (1400 AH/1980). Rasa’il Ibn Sina (Avicenna’s Treatises). Qom: Bidar Publications.
-  Ibn Sina, H., (Avicenna). (2007). Ahwal al-Nafs (states of the soul). Paris: Dar Babylon.
-  Mazandarani, M. S. (1382 AP/2003). Sharh al-Kafi – al-Usul wa al-Rowda (a commentary of al-Kafi). annotated by Sha‘rani. Tehran: al-maktabat al-Islamiyyah Publications.
-  Muzaffar, M. R. (1383 AP/2004). Usul al-Fiqh (principles of Jurisprudence). Qom: Esmailian Publications.
-  Shirazi, S. M., (Mulla Sadra). (1360 AP/1981). Al-Shawahid al-Rububiyyah fi Manahij al-Sulukiyyah. Tehran: Daneshgahi Publication Institute.
-  Shirazi, S. M., (Mulla Sadra). (1368 AP/1989)Al-Hikmat al-Muta‘aliyah fi al-Asfar al-‘Aqliyyat al-Arba‘ (the Transcendent Theosophy in the Four Journeys of the Intellect). Maktabat al-Mustafawi.
-  Shirazi, S. M., (Mulla Sadra). (1383 AP/2004)Sharh-i Usul-i Kafi (a commentary on Kulayni’s al-Kafi). Tehran: Mu’assasat Mutale‘at va Tahqiqat-i Farhangi.
-  Shirazi, S. M., (Mulla Sadra). (n.d.). Al-Mabda’ wa al-Ma‘ad. n.p.,
-  Tabatabai, M. H. (n.d.)Hashiyat al-Kifayah (an annotation of al-Kifayah). . Qom: Tabatabai Scientific Foundation in cooperation with Nashr-i Ketab Fair.
-  Tabatabai, M. H., (1390 AP/2011)Al-Mizan fi Tafsir al-Quran (an exegesis of the Quran). Mu’assasat al-A‘lami li al-Matbu‘at, Beirut.
-  Yazdanpanah, Y. (1395 AP/2016)Chisti va Nahve-i Wujud-i Farhang (the essence and way that culture exists). Ketab-i Farda.
 
CAPTCHA Image