Necessary Existence and Monotheism - An Avicennian Account of the Islamic Conception of Divine Unity

Description

Avicenna believes that God must be understood in the first place as the Necessary Existent (wâǧib al-wuǧûd). In his various works, he provides different versions of an ingenious argument for the existence of the Necessary Existent—the so-called Proof of the Sincere (burhân al-ṣiddîqîn)—and argues that all the properties that are usually attributed to God can be extracted merely from God's having necessary existence. Considering the centrality of tawḥîd to Islam, the first thing Avicenna tries to extract from God's necessary existence is God's oneness. The aim of the present Element is to provide a detailed discussion of Avicenna's arguments for the existence and unity of God. Through this project, the author hopes to clarify how, for Avicenna, the Islamic concept of monotheism is intertwined with the concept of essential existence. Cover Title page Copyright page Necessary Existence and Monotheism: An Avicennian Account of the Islamic Conception of Divine Unity Contents 1 The Avicennian Conception of Islamic Monotheism 2 Avicennian Necessary Existent Theology versus Anselmian Perfect Being Theology 3 Basic Notions of the Proof of the Sincere 3.1 Is the Existence of God Self-Evident? 3.2 Proof through Reflection on Existence in Itself 3.3 The Distinction between Essence and Existence 3.4 Different Modalities of Existence 3.5 The Nature of a Necessary Existent 3.6 The Principle of Sufficient Reason 4 The Existence of a Necessary Existent 4.1 A Plantingean Argument Argument A1 Argument A2 4.2 Argument from Necessitation Argument B 4.3 Argument from Finitism Argument C 4.4 The Proof of the Sincere Argument D 4.5 The Epistemological Status of the Arguments for the Existenceof a Necessary Existent 5 The Unity of the Necessary Existent 5.1 There Is Only One Necessary Existent Argument E 5.2 The Necessary Existent Is Simple Argument F 6 Conclusion References Acknowledgements