Self-Knowledge and Avicenna’s Floating Man Thought-Experiment

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Philosophy Department,, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22091/jptr.2025.11486.3154

Abstract

Avicenna’s floating man thought experiment has been studied and criticized for a millennium from many philosophical points of view. The ontological dimensions of this thought experiment have been explored a lot. Epistemological aspects, however, have not been discovered much.
First, I offer a version of modern criticisms. If the modern criticisms are correct, then, the thought experiment may not support substance dualism. But it seems to me that some modest versions of the thought experiment may help modest dualism. Thus I design and offer seven versions of the thought experiment. The first version is different from Avicenn’s original thought experiment and concentrates on individuation conditions of self and body.The second version will focus on epistemic differences between basic self-knowledge and knowledge of body in terms of epistemic rights. The third version deals with self-referential and self-verifying aspects of basic self-knowledge. The fourth would be about modal properties of self and body. The fifth will show how self as a subject matter may have necessary relation to self-knowledge and how it may be different from body. The sixth argument will highlight the environmental neutrality of basic self-knowledge.The last one will make use of the notion of self as a critical reasoner.

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Journal of Philosophical Theological Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 08 April 2025

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