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This thesis is a study of Ibn Sin a's concept of the Perfect Man, which is studied here with reference to the role of the faculties of the soul. Chapter I is a brief introduction to Ibn Sina's life and his intellectual background. Chapter II studies Ibn Sin a's views on human existence, the human body and the human soul. In the section dealing with the the human soul, the faculties of the soul are elaborated at length. Chapter III discusses Ibn Sin a's concept of the Perfect Man, a person who has reached the highest position which corresponds to the acquired intellect. This chapter also discusses Ibn Sin a's view of the role of the faculties of the soul in attaining to the position of perfection.

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Ibn Sina has been the object of many contemporary studies, all of which have attempted to examine various angles of the possible connection between Ibn Sina and mysticism. These studies, however, have not fully explored Ibn Sina's understanding of mysticism; he is generally seen as the most rational philosopher who ever lived and, therefore, unlikely to have been a mystic in any sense. In response to this claim, the present study aims to reconsider Ibn Sina's connection with mysticism and to examine his own perception of this tradition. / This thesis first looks at the various factors which may possibly have contributed to Ibn Sina's mystical thought. Two of these were his spiritual consciousness and the Shi'ite milieu of his times. The intellectual tradition in which Ibn Sina lived, and his exposure to different aspects of Islamic intellectual tradition, were another factor that shaped his mystical thought. This thesis also attempts to reread Ibn Sina's mystical works in order to reveal his methodological perspective on mysticism. Ibn Sina incorporates mystical experience in a symbolic narrative into his work. He also theorized about mystical experience, using S&dotbelow;ufi terms like mystical knowledge ('irfan) and love ('ihsq), and tried to explain these experiences in a systematic fashion. / Ibn Sina's main contribution to the field of mysticism is his attempt to reconcile and to connect the different traditions of Neoplatonism, gnosticism, and S&dotbelow;ufism. It is remarkable how these ideas fit into a common framework---that of mysticism. These ideas may possibly stem from his close understanding of and sympathy with S&dotbelow;ufi discourse. Ibn Sina also contributed to a new literary genre in S&dotbelow;ufi literature, most notably in his visionary recitals, which express a sort of mystical experience.

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The intention of this project is to explicate several arguments advanced in the esoteric treatise Al-Risalah al-Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya fi amr al-Macad, Avicenna's treatise par excellence on the subject of resurrection. This study of Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya is primarily exegetical and limits itself to ideas which grant Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya a character of its own. Consequently, the scholastic demonstrations Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya shares in common with Avicenna's other writings are left aside. / Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya contains a number of arguments, for example those directed against the mutakallimun, which cannot be found elsewhere in Avicenna's writings. It also presents two purely psychological demonstrations for the immateriality---and hence immortality---of the rational soul. Finally, Ad&dotbelow;h&dotbelow;awiyya explicitly describes the states of the souls in the hereafter, and reveals the principle upon which Avicenna founds his doctrine of al-macad.

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Suhrawardi's interpretation of Avicenna's philosophical anthropology greatly depends on the Peripatetic system, in spite of its novel light motif and the faculty of imagination's predominance. His definition of the soul does not depart significantly from Avicenna's: its definition as an entelechy and a substance, its incorporeality, its pre-existence, or the role of the vital spirits---pneumata. However, he criticizes the materialism implied in a number of Avicennan theses. At issue is the ontological unity of the soul that Suhrawardi perceives to be jeopardized by the localization in the body of the representative faculties---the active and passive imaginations and the estimation---and their objects. After criticizing the "extramissive" and the "intromissive" theories of vision, Suhrawardi introduces his own illuminative theory in an effort to simultaneously account for mystical vision. He also reduces Avicenna's faculties responsible for representation to a single faculty, focusing on the soul's role in perception. Suhrawardi analyses self-knowledge, discussing the primary awareness of one's own existence, self-identity, the unmediated character of this type of knowledge, and the issue of individuation. At the conceptual level, intellection is logically prior to imagination, while discussions about the active intelligence, its functions, and the conjunction of the rational soul---the Isfahbad-light---with the active intelligence---the light principle---still remain Avicennan. Epistemological concepts such as intuition and mystical contemplation become central in the debate over the primacy of mystical knowledge over philosophical knowledge. Suhrawardi's and Avicenna's discussions about the nature of prophetic knowledge are then contrasted with the nature of mystical knowledge by introducing the negative and positive functions of the faculty of imagination, namely, its role in the particularization of universal truths and its mimetic function. The survival of th

This thesis will partly compare the approaches of two pioneers in Islamic philosophy to the soul-body problem: the philosophical psychology of Mulla Sadra (Sadr al-Muta'allihin Shirazi 975-1050/1571-1640) and that of Ibn Sina (370-428/980-1037). Our main concern will be with the former, the founder of "trancendent theosophy", particularly his ideas regarding the corporeal generation of the soul. / A brief historical background of the problem is presented in the first chapter. In order to evaluate the real philosophical value of Mulla Sadra's doctrine, the thesis will investigate the soundness of Mulla Sadra's novel psychological findings. "Substantial motion" (al-harakah al-jawhariyyah) and the "gradation of existence" (al-tashkik fi maratib al-wujud) are the two main philosophical principles formulated and implied by our philosopher regarding the elaboration of his theory on the soul's developmental process. / In our study, we discuss the nature of the soul-body relationship, the evidence which indicates their mutual interaction, and finally, the various forms of this relationship. In the final chapter, we focus on the developmental process of the soul's substantial motion up to the stage of union with the active intellect. Our analytical discussion is centered on whether or not the theory of the corporeality of the soul's generation yields a meaningful conception of the soul's evolution from materiality to immateriality. / Considering the serious challenges and unsolved difficulties that still remain, it is an open question whether Sadra's theory, particularly its emphasis on the corporeality of the soul's generation, can adequately account for the soul's developmental process up to the stage of unity with the world of intellects.