Science of the Soul in Ibn Sīnā’s Pointers and Reminders: A Philological Study

Description

In Science of the Soul in Ibn Sīnā’s Pointers and Reminders, Michael A. Rapoport provides a philological study of Ibn Sīnā’s (d. 1037) scientific explanations for phenomena related to the human soul in his most challenging and influential philosophical summa. ‎Contents ‎Acknowledgments ‎Chronology of Ibn Sīnā’s Works ‎Notes on Sources, Presentation, Transliteration, and Translation ‎Introduction ‎1. Ibn Sīnā and Mysticism ‎1.1. Defining (Ibn Sīnā’s) Sufism and Mysticism ‎1.2. A Terminological Clarification ‎2. Metaphysics of the Rational Soul ‎3. The Uniqueness of the Pointers ‎4. Editions and Translations of the Pointers and Reminders ‎4.1. Editions ‎4.2. Translations ‎5. Objectives, Methodology, and Structure ‎6. Overview of Ibn Sīnā’s Internal Faculties ‎Chapter 1. The Soul’s Independence from the Body ‎1. The Rational Soul’s Independence from the Body ‎2. Intellect and Intelligible Do Not Unite ‎3. God’s Knowledge of Particulars ‎4. Evil and the Order of the Good ‎5. Ibn Sīnā, Optimist ‎Chapter 2. The Soul’s Ultimate Destination ‎1. Internal Pleasures Are Superior to External Pleasures ‎2. The Nature of Pleasure and Pain ‎3. Awareness of Pleasure and Pain ‎4. Pleasure and Pain in the Afterlife ‎5. Ranking Beings in Terms of Joy ‎6. Returning to the Final Destination ‎Chapter 3. The Soul’s Intellectual Development ‎1. Differentiating Knowers from Non-knowers ‎2. The “Stages” (darajāt) of the Human Intellect in Relation to Secondary Intelligibles ‎3. Knowledge (ʿirfān) and the Highest Stages ‎4. Characteristics of the Knower ‎5. A New Metaphor for a Familiar Epistemology ‎Chapter 4. The Soul, Science, and the Supernatural ‎1. Marvelous Feats ‎2. Imaginative Knowledge ‎2.1. A Brief Excursus on Imaginative Knowledge ‎2.2. Empirical, Logical, and Philosophical Bases for Engravings from Above ‎2.3. Distracting the Faculties of the Soul ‎2.4. Making Contact with the Supernal Realm ‎2.5. Imagination, Imitation, and Interpretation ‎2.6. Ibn Sīnā’s Empiricism ‎2.7. Conclusion to the Excursus on Imaginative Knowledge ‎3. Motive Power ‎4. Naturalizing the Supernatural ‎Chapter 5. Returning to Ibn Sīnā’s Mysticism/Sufism ‎1. Non-standard Epistemology ‎2. Union with the Divine ‎3. The Impossibility of Union for Ibn Sīnā ‎Conclusion ‎1. If Not Sufism or Mysticism, Then What? ‎2. Concluding Remarks ‎Appendix 1. Comparison between Pointers and Ibn Sīnā’s Summae ‎Appendix 2. Comparison between Pointers and Ibn Sīnā’s Monographs ‎Bibliography ‎Index