Abstract
Recent discussions of Avicenna’s modal syllogistic by Street (2000), Street (2002) and Thom (2003) have adopted a simple de re reading of Avicenna’s dhātī propositions, and either ignored or rejected the possibility of metaphysical applications for his modal theory. In this chapter I seek to supplement these interpretations by exploring an interpretation of Avicenna’s dhātī propositions that incorporates a de dicto element. I argue that, given such a reading, his absolute and modal propositions have application to Aristotelian metaphysical theory.
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References
Aristotle: 1931, De Somno et Vigilia, translated by J.I. Beare in The Works of Aristotle translated into English under the editorship of W. D. Ross, Vol. 3, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
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Thom, P. (2008). Logic and Metaphysics in Avicenna’s Modal Syllogistic. In: Rahman, S., Street, T., Tahiri, H. (eds) The Unity of Science in the Arabic Tradition. Logic, Epistemology, and The Unity of Science, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8405-8_13
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