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Augustine and Ibn Sina on Souls in the Afterlife

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

Gareth Matthews
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Abstract

This paper examines significant similarities between the views of Augustine and Ibn Sina on the soul's knowledge of itself. But there is also an intriguing difference. Ibn Sina wanted to be able to supply a satisfying account of the individuation of souls in the afterlife but was unable to provide it. Augustine, by contrast, though seemingly not especially interested in supplying any such account, nevertheless attributed to separated souls a desire to return to their very own bodies, which suggests a way of developing such an account.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 89 , Issue 3 , July 2014 , pp. 463 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2014 

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References

1 Sorabji, Richard, Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death, (Oxford: Clardendon Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Sorabji Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death, 226

3 Sorabji Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death, 6

4 Ibid., 6

5 Ibid., 37

6 Sorabji Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death, 218

7 On The Trinity (De Trinitate), McKenna, Stephen (trans.), Matthews, G.B. (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002): 10.10.16Google Scholar

8 Sorabji Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death, 124

9 Sina, Ibn, Liber De Anima, Avicenna Latinus, Van Riet, S. (ed.), Leiden: E.J.Brill, (1968): 5.3; Sorabji 2006: 134–35Google Scholar

10 Augustine, City of God (trans.) Dods, Marcus, Schaff, Philip (ed.), vol. II (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993): 13.23Google Scholar

11 Ibid. 22.14

12 Ibid

13 Ibid. 22.20

14 Ibid. 13.20