The way of the knowers
Read the late and allusive Remarks and Admonitions, from its proof of the Necessary Existent to its portrait of the knowers and their joy.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Written at Isfahan in his final years and also known as Pointers and Reminders, the book uses an allusive style on purpose, to train students to rebuild the arguments. It was rarely read without a commentary: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi attacked it, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi defended it, and their works made it a central text of later Islamic philosophy. Avicenna’s last summa condenses his philosophy into terse pointers that readers must complete themselves: a first part on logic, then sections on bodies, the soul, the Necessary Existent and the order of emanation, ending with the joy of the knowers, their stations and the soul’s ascent toward the Truth.
Following the arguments
Pointers : The book gives hints rather than complete proofs, so that each student finishes the argument and learns to think instead of repeating. Proof of the truthful : The existence of a Necessary Existent is shown by reflecting on existence itself, without starting from motion or from the created world. Stations of the knowers : The closing sections distinguish the ascetic, the worshipper and the knower, and present the soul’s ascent toward the Truth as the completion of philosophy.
Continuing the reading
Read it beside a fuller exposition such as the Book of Healing, and with a commentary; begin with the fourth section, on existence and its causes, then the chapters on the stations of the knowers. Written at Isfahan in his final years and also known as Pointers and Reminders, the book uses an allusive style on purpose, to train students to rebuild the arguments. It was rarely read without a commentary: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi attacked it, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi defended it, and their works made it a central text of later Islamic philosophy.
In his last summa Avicenna presents philosophy as a training of the soul that leads from demonstration to contemplation.
Your turn to think.
- Why might a philosopher choose to write in hints rather than complete arguments?
- How do the stations of the knowers relate to the theory of the intellect set out earlier in the book?
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