Category: Avicenna
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Creation out of Nothing or out of Mere Possibles?
I wrote: On an Avicennian scheme, creation is actualization of the merely possible. If so, God does not create ex nihilo, but ex possibilitate. He doesn't create out of nothing; he creates out of possibles. This does not comport well with divine sovereignty. If God is sovereign, he is sovereign over all orders, including the order of…
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Notes on Avicenna: Essence, Existence, and Creation
Time was when the Islamic world could boast world-class philosophers. The Persian Ibn Sina (980-1037 anno domini) was one of them. He is known in the West as Avicenna. Translated into Latin, his works had a major influence on the philosophy of the 12th and 13th centuries and beyond. De Ente et Essentia of Thomas…
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Avicenna’s God and the Queen of England
A re-post from 12 September 2013. Re-posts are the re-runs of the blogosphere. You don't watch a Twilight Zone or Seinfeld episode only once do you? ………………….. For a long time now I have been wanting to study Frederick D. Wilhelmsen's hard-to-find The Paradoxical Structure of Existence. Sunday I got lucky at Bookman's and found the obscure…