The Philosopher

Ibn Sina

The face

The background

Nationality:
Persian
Schools:
Peripatetic school, Aristotelianism
Branchs:
Medicine, Philosophy, Astronomy, Alchemy, Geography, Geology, Psychology, Islamic theology, Logic, Mathematics, Physics, Poetry
Period:
Islamic Golden Age

The synopsis

Avicenna (c. 980 – 22 June 1037), also known as Ibn Sina, was a Persian polymath of the Islamic Golden Age, regarded as one of the most notable physicians and influential thinkers in Islamic history. He wrote nearly 450 works on a wide range of subjects, including philosophy, medicine, astronomy, alchemy, geography, geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, and poetry. His medical encyclopedia, The Canon of Medicine, became a standard medical text at many medieval European universities and remained in use as late as 1650. His philosophy was of the Peripatetic school derived from Aristotelianism, of which he is considered one of the greatest proponents within the Muslim world. His influence extended to medieval European medical and Scholastic thought. He is often described as the father of early modern medicine.

The works

The quotes

The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.
Ibn Sina
That whose existence is necessary must necessarily be one essence.
Ibn Sina
Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.
Ibn Sina
The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.
Ibn Sina
Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.
Ibn Sina
As to the mental essence, we find it in infants devoid of every mental form.
Ibn Sina