IBN SĪNĀ AND IBN RUSHD’S CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL IN LIGHT OF ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF FOUR CAUSES
Kanz Philosophia A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism December 8, 2025 Müfit Selim Saruhan 1 citation
Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Rushd offer contrasting conceptions of the soul rooted in Aristotle's four causes but shaped by different metaphysical commitments. Ibn Sīnā, influenced by Neoplatonism, views the soul as an immaterial, self-subsistent substance that transcends the body and seeks perfection through union with the Active Intellect via rational contemplation and ethical purification. Ibn Rushd, adhering to Aristotelian naturalism, sees the soul as inseparable from the body, its form and actuality, with human perfection realized in civic virtue and rational engagement within empirical life. The article applies Aristotle's four causes to both models and argues that re-examining these classical Islamic philosophies informs contemporary debates on consciousness, personhood, and moral responsibility.