A Historical Analysis of Ibne Sinas Life and Contributions to Modern Science - Essay Example

A Historical Analysis of Ibne Sina’s Life and Contributions to Modern Science Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina is one of the most important philosophers in Medieval Islamic World. In Europe and America, he is well-known by his Europeanized name “Avicenna”. He was born in “Afshana near Bukhara in Central Asia in about 980” (Rizvi pars.1). As a physical, Avicenna is well-known for his book the Canon (al-Qanun fi’l-Tibb). This book had played a crucial role in pre-modern medical education in both Europe and in Medieval Islamic Empire. Also Avicenna’s philosophical book “summa the Cure” (al-Shifa’) was also influential in European scholasticism. It is believed that “Summa the Cure” once heavily influenced the famous western philosopher Thomas Aquinas. As a philosopher, Avicenna’s success lies in the fact that he had been able to find out an interrelation between one’s belief in God and man’s existential being. So, Avicenna can be assumed to be the foremost Islamic philosophic thinker. The theoretical space that he provides for God as the Essential Being necessarily builds up the groundwork for his “theories of the soul, intellect and cosmos” (Goodman 43). Indeed, he successfully articulated that God is necessarily the foundation or origin of all the tangible and intangible existence of this universe. Avicenna, the famous Muslim philosopher and physician, was born in a village named Qishlak Afshona in Uzbekistan (which was then called Bukhara) in 980 AD. His mother Setareh was a traditional housewife fro Bukhara and his father, Abdullah was a well-honored Islamic scholar who came to Bukhara from Balkh which was a famous city of the Samanid Empire. When Avicenna was born, his father Abdullah was the governor of one of the cities of the Samanid Empire. Since Avicenna was born in an affluent middle-class family, he had the opportunity to be educated well. Moreover, he was meritorious from his childhood. He was gifted with an extraordinary intellect and memory. As a result, he could outwit his teachers at a very young age. Referring to his autobiography, some historians believe that he memorized the whole Quran on at the age of ten. Though many scholars mark this capability as an exaggeration, his extraordinary intellectual capability is well-accepted by the scholars. For the first time, Avicenna began to learn about medicine from an unnamed scholar who wandered around the country and earned his living by curing the sick people. Later at the age of 16, he began to learn formally about medicine. But his curiosity about pathogenesis and remedy provoked him to learn more about the biology and anatomical science and also to discover new methods of treatment (Goodman 13-17). Though Avicenna, at his youth, began to learn all arithmetic, mathematics, philosophy, and medical science, being encouraged by his progress in learning medical science, began to learn it in full swing. He would attend sick people and treat them with both traditional and his own methods. In comparison to the traditional method of treatment, his methods seemed to be quite effective. Indeed, these successes had provoked him to discover more treatment method and to learn more about the science of human body. In his autobiography, he describes his experience of learning about medicine as following: “Medicine is no hard and thorny science, like mathematics and metaphysics, so I soon made great progress; I became an excellent doctor and began to treat patients, using approved remedies.” (Nasr 67) Besides learning medicine, he also learned metaphysics and philosophy. During his youth, he had been greatly influenced by Aristotle and Plato. His arduous nature in learning new things is evident in his effort to learn Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy. It is said that he faced great difficulty in perceiving Greek philosophic thoughts. For example, he went through Aristotle’s Metaphysics for more than forty times until he understood the book. Though, Avicenna is famous in modern world for great contribution to medical science, his contribution to metaphysics is also profound, as Sajjad H. Rizvi says, Primarily a metaphysical philosopher of being who was concerned with understanding the self’s existence in this world in relation to its contingency, Ibn Sina’s philosophy is an attempt to construct a coherent and comprehensive system that accords with the religious exigencies of Muslim culture. (Rizvi pars.4) Many of Avicenna’s contributions to medical science are unique. As a result, he could influence Europe heavily during the medieval age. In the Islamic world, his influence was much more deep-rooted because of his attempt to define the Quranic verses through Aristotelian and Platonic thoughts, as Sajjad H. Rizvi says, “In the Islamic sciences (‘ulum), he wrote a series of short commentaries on selected Qur’anic verses and chapters that reveal a trained philosopher’s hermeneutical method and attempt to come to terms with revelation” (pars.1). In his book, kalam, his thoughts about the metaphysical realities such as soul, human’s existence and the existence of God, etc heavily echoed Aristotelian concepts of reality. But he also had been able to make a reconciliatory approach to the points where Islam and Greek philosophy opposed each other. Avicenna’s metaphysical thoughts later turned out to be the basis of the studies of the philosophical theology of Islam. Indeed, his theory of Cosmos (in other words, his theory of existence) primarily focuses on God (Allah) as the First Cause of existence in this universe. He believed that God is the Necessary Being from whom the visible world has emanated. Avicenna was one of the most important philosophers and physicians in the medieval Islamic World. He also had been able to influence Medieval Europe by his deep knowledge in medical science. But in the Islamic world, the influence of his metaphysical thoughts was even deeper because his reconciliatory approach to Aristotelian Philosophy and Islamic theology. Quite successfully he had been able to explain various theological concepts such as the existence of souls, human being’s physical existence, etc through Aristotelian metaphysics. He believed that God is the source or the First Cause of all of the physical existences of this universe. In modern world, though Avicenna is popular for his contribution to medical science, he has shown his expertise in almost all the branches of knowledge. Works Cited Goodman, Lenn E. Avicenna (Updated ed.). Cornell University Press. 2006 Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. "Avicenna". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007. [online] 2007-11-05. Available at http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/45755/Avicenna Rizvi, Sajjad H. “Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (c. 980—1037)”. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 6 January, 2006. [online] available at http://www.iep.utm.edu/avicenna/ Read More