Divine Emanation as Cosmic Origin: Ibn Sina and His Critics

TL;DR

This paper explores Ibn Sina's philosophical solution to the problem of how an eternal world and an eternal God coexist without compromising divine unity, analyzing his arguments and critics' responses.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of Ibn Sina's cosmological argument and critically assesses the responses from his critics, offering new insights into medieval metaphysical debates.

Findings

Ibn Sina's argument preserves divine unity while allowing for an eternal cosmos.

Critics' counter-arguments highlight unresolved issues in Ibn Sina's reasoning.

The analysis clarifies the philosophical significance of divine emanation in cosmology.

Abstract

The question of cosmic beginning has always attracted considerable attention from serious thinkers past and present. This article examines Ibn Sina's proposed solution to the vexed problem that given an eternally existing world and one eternally existing God, how the two necessarily can possibly co-exist without having the perfect, simple unity of God destroyed by contact with the multiplicity of material things. Both Ibn Sina's arguments as well as the counter-arguments of his critics are analyzed and assessed.