Book contents
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction The Intersection of Biology and Cosmology in Ancient Philosophy
- Chapter 1 Souls and Cosmos before Plato
- Chapter 2 The Ensouled Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus
- Chapter 3 Platonic ‘Desmology’ and the Body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c–34a)
- Chapter 4 The World Soul Takes Command
- Chapter 5 Begotten and Made
- Chapter 6 The De Motu Animalium on the Movement of the Heavens
- Chapter 7 Biology and Cosmology in Aristotle
- Chapter 8 Recapitulation Theory and Transcendental Morphology in Antiquity
- Chapter 9 The Stoics’ Empiricist Model of Divine Thought
- Chapter 10 Why Is the Cosmos Intelligent?
- Chapter 11 Cardiology and Cosmology in Post-Chrysippean Stoicism
- Chapter 12 The Agency of the World
- Chapter 13 God and the Material World
- Chapter 14 At the Intersection of Cosmology and Biology
- Chapter 15 Is the Heaven an Animal?
- References
- Index
- Index Locorum
Chapter 15 - Is the Heaven an Animal?
Avicenna’s Celestial Psychology between Cosmology and Biology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2021
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient Philosophy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction The Intersection of Biology and Cosmology in Ancient Philosophy
- Chapter 1 Souls and Cosmos before Plato
- Chapter 2 The Ensouled Cosmos in Plato’s Timaeus
- Chapter 3 Platonic ‘Desmology’ and the Body of the World Animal (Tim. 30c–34a)
- Chapter 4 The World Soul Takes Command
- Chapter 5 Begotten and Made
- Chapter 6 The De Motu Animalium on the Movement of the Heavens
- Chapter 7 Biology and Cosmology in Aristotle
- Chapter 8 Recapitulation Theory and Transcendental Morphology in Antiquity
- Chapter 9 The Stoics’ Empiricist Model of Divine Thought
- Chapter 10 Why Is the Cosmos Intelligent?
- Chapter 11 Cardiology and Cosmology in Post-Chrysippean Stoicism
- Chapter 12 The Agency of the World
- Chapter 13 God and the Material World
- Chapter 14 At the Intersection of Cosmology and Biology
- Chapter 15 Is the Heaven an Animal?
- References
- Index
- Index Locorum
Summary
In metaphysics, Avicenna refers to the heaven as animal (ḥayawān), and to its proximate principle of motion as soul (nafs), by using the same terminology used in psychology to refer to sublunary animals and their principle. The strategy behind this approach is to account for a remote phenomenon, i.e. heavenly circular motion, through the account of an analogous but closer and thus more knowable phenonemon, i.e. animal locomotion. Thus, in metaphysics, a sort of continuity between sublunary and celestial ‘animals’ seems to be posited: both are defined by means of the same terminology and share in some distinctive features. However, in psychology, where this terminology is defined, Avicenna explicitly denies that sublunary and celestial ‘animals’ can be referred to in the very same way, except by equivocation. This position rests on the discontinuity between the sublunary and celestial realms that is posited in psychology. Given that Avicenna’s attitude towards this issue is not consistent, the aim of this chapter is to shed some light on the use of the terms animal and soul in psychology and in metaphysics, in order to ascertain whether they have the same meaning when they are applied to celestial and sublunary entities.
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- Information
- Cosmology and Biology in Ancient PhilosophyFrom Thales to Avicenna, pp. 261 - 278Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021