حكمت مشرقيه

Oriental Wisdom

Some people consider Ibn-Siva a Peripatetic philosopher and merely a comentator of Aristotleʹs works. However even a facile study of the works of this eminent philosopher reveals that this is absolutely wrong. In fact, the differences between Ibn-Sinaʹs theories and those of Aristotle are so great in number that we cannot even enumerate them in this paper. Nevertheless, it seems that towards the end of his short life, Ibn-Sina intended to found a new philosophical system, called "Oriental Wisdom" (versus the Peripateticsʹ occidental wisdom), but he couldnʹt achieve this purpose due to his untimely death. Today the only available part of the hook of "Oriental Wisdom" is the chapter on oriental logic. Therefore, the purpose of the wirter in this paper is to explore those issues which play a central role in Ibn-Sinaʹs oriental thought and stand in opposition to the views of the Peripatetic philosophers, particularly Aristotle. Such issues include: 1. Ibn-Sina and Aristotleʹs disagreement concerming the relationship between the soul and the body. 2. Ibn-Sins and Aristotleʹs disagreement concerning the active intellect. 3. The conjectural intellect and the sacred intellect, which are among Ibn-Sinaʹs innovations. 4. Ibn-Sinaʹs gnostic disposition which is based on emananation and illumination from the outside and is in contradiction Aristotleʹs intellectual and senseless paganism.