The story
Avicenna (Ibn Sina, c. 980 to 1037), a Persian physician and philosopher born near Bukhara, presented a famous thought experiment in his philosophical encyclopedia The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa), written in the 1020s, and in other works. Suppose that a person is created all at once, fully formed and perfect, but with eyes veiled so that he cannot see, and suspended in the air or in a void so that he feels no touch or resistance. His limbs are spread so that they do not meet or touch one another. Would such a person affirm that he exists? Avicenna says yes: he would be aware of himself, though he would not affirm that he has a body, limbs or organs.
The point is that self-awareness is a direct, immediate fact that does not depend on any sensation or knowledge of the body. Therefore the self, or soul, is a different thing from the body. Avicenna offers this less as a formal proof than as a reminder, pointing readers to something they can see for themselves. It belongs to an Aristotelian psychology that he shaped with Neoplatonic ideas from the Greek works translated in Baghdad. Scholars compare it to Descartes' view that the thinking self is known without the body, and Latin thinkers such as Aquinas discussed it.
Why it mattered
- It is one of the earliest clear arguments for the distinctness of mind and body based on first-person awareness.
- It influenced medieval Latin and Islamic debates about the soul, including Aquinas.
- Historians of philosophy now cite it in debates about whether Descartes' cogito had Arabic and medieval antecedents.
Sources
- Avicenna (Ibn Sina) Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The Thought-Experimental Method: Avicenna's Flying Man Argument Journal of the American Philosophical Association
Community notes
Loading notes…