On Avicennian Reception of Aristotle’s Categories: (ch. I–IV)

Abstract

The article is the first part of a study regarding the problem of the re-edition of Aristotle’s Categories in the work “The Healing” (ash-Shifā’) by the greatest philosopher of classical Islam, Ibn Sina (Avicenna; d. 1037). It shows the ways and approaches by Avicenna to revisit the epistemological status of the Categories, as well as his approach to “ontologize” and “delogicisize” the problems of categories. Also, the authors provide an analysis of how Avicenna re-worked the Aristotelian prologue (chapters 1–4), sometimes is referred to as the Pre-Predicamenta. The analysis includes as follows: semantics of various types of words, four-fold division (“ontological square”), ten-fold division and its justification.