Person Ibn Sīnā Avicenna

Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) was and remains the preeminent Islamic philosopher. His works on science, metaphysics and medicine have had great influence on Islamic culture as well as on the West. However, although often mentioned in his metaphysics, his logical works have had less influence in the West are, as only his treatise on Porphyry’s Isagoge was translated into Latin. A translation of Avicenna’s “commentary” on Aristotle’s Categories, Al-Maqūlāt (Part One, Volume Two of Aš-Šhifāʼ), is given here with explanatory notes. Avicenna does not paraphrase the text. Rather, as he states, he comments upon what the correct doctrines are. He offers original doctrines on such topics as paronymy, the ontological square in Categories 2, predication, the antepredicamental rule, the number of the categories, distinction of primary and first substance, an account of relation, as opposed to relationship, the ontology of mathematical objects, and the predication of contraries. Avicenna uses and refers to these doctrines in his scientific works, particularly in his metaphysics.

Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) was and remains the preeminent Islamic philosopher. His works on science, metaphysics and medicine have had great influence on Islamic culture as well as on the West. However, although often mentioned in his metaphysics, his logical works have had less influence in the West are, as only his treatise on Porphyry’s Isagoge was translated into Latin. A translation of Avicenna’s “commentary” on Aristotle’s Categories, Al-Maqūlāt (Part One, Volume Two of Aš-Šhifāʼ), is given here with explanatory notes. Avicenna does not paraphrase the text. Rather, as he states, he comments upon what the correct doctrines are. He offers original doctrines on such topics as paronymy, the ontological square in Categories 2, predication, the antepredicamental rule, the number of the categories, distinction of primary and first substance, an account of relation, as opposed to relationship, the ontology of mathematical objects, and the predication of contraries. Avicenna uses and refers to these doctrines in his scientific works, particularly in his metaphysics. Translating Author Allan Bäck, a professor of philosophy at Kutztown University, has written many articles and books on a variety of topics in the history and philosophy of logic, including ancient and Islamic philosophy. He has been awarded a Forschungspreis from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (Senior Humboldt Research Prize) as well as an American Philosophical Association Fellowship for the Institute for Advanced Studies at Edinburgh University in recognition of his scholarly work. He has won the Wiesenberger award for teaching and the Chambliss prize for research at Kutztown University.