The Thought Experimental Method: Avicenna's Flying Man Argument

Adamson, Peter and Benevich, Fedor (2018): The Thought Experimental Method: Avicenna's Flying Man Argument. In: Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 4, No. 2: pp. 147-164

Abstract

No argument from the Arabic philosophical tradition has received more scholarly attention than Avicenna's 'flying man' thought experiment, in which a human is created out of thin air and is able to grasp his existence without grasping that he has a body. This paper offers a new interpretation of the version of this thought experiment found at the end of the first chapter of Avicenna's treatment of soul in the Healing. We argue that it needs to be understood in light of an epistemological theory set out elsewhere by Avicenna, which allows that all the constitutive properties of an essence will be clear to someone who understands and considers that essence. On our reading, this theory is put to work in the 'flying man': because the flying man would grasp that his own essence has existence without grasping that he has a body, connection to body cannot be constitutive of the essence.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy
• ISSN: 2053-4477
• Alliance/National Licence: This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
• Language: English