Ebook: The Reception of Aristotle's Metaphysics in Avicenna's Kitab al-Sifa: A Milestone of Western Metaphysical Thought

This volume deals with the reception of Aristotle’s Metaphysic s in the masterpiece on metaphysics by Avicenna (Ibn Sina, d. 1037 C.E.), one of the major exponents of Arabic philosophy: the Ilahiyyat (Science of Divine Things) of the Kitab al-Sifa’ ( Book of the Cure ), known in the Latin Middle Ages as Liber de Philosophia Prima sive Scientia Divina .

The first part of the book (on the Arabic translations of the Metaphysics , al-Kindi and al-Farabi) introduces the discussion of Avicenna’s reshaping of the epistemological profile of the Metaphysics in Part II (his account of the subject-matter, structure, method and role of metaphysics in the system of sciences) and the recasting of its contents in Part III.

The present volume provides the first systematic comparison of the Ilahiyyat with the Metaphysics and a comprehensive account of this latter’s transmission in pre-Avicennian Greek and Arabic philosophy.