Examining the Compatibility of Avicenna's View on Resurrection with the Fundamentals of psychology

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Seyyed Hadi Rezaeiyan ¹
• Hamedeh Rastaei ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Imam Sadiq University

² Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Ale- Taha Institute of Higher Education, Tehran, Iran.

10.22067/epk.2025.92997.1432

Abstract

The issue of this paper is to examine the compatibility of Avicenna’s view on the resurrection and survival of souls with his foundations of psychology. The method of this study is a critical analysis of the inconsistencies between Avicenna’s foundations of psychology and his view on the resurrection and survival of souls. Avicenna provides arguments for the immateriality of the soul and its incorruptibility and concludes that all souls survive. But this conclusion conflicts with some of Avicenna’s foundations of psychology, including the stability of the soul's substance and its separation from the body, the materiality of the imagination, the survival of imperfect souls, the individualization of souls after separation from the body, the individualization of souls during belonging to the body, the separation of imperfect souls and the problem of reincarnation. Some of the inconsistencies are related to imperfect souls and some are general and even include the perfect souls. Avicenna’s view of the unity of the intelligent with the intelligible and the materiality of the perceptual powers, especially the power of imagination, is the main factor in the incompatibility of his foundations of psychology with his view on the survival of the soul. Accepting the immateriality of the power of imagination can organize his psychological system and make his statement coherent on the issue of the survival of the human soul.

Keywords

• Avicenna
• the Survival of the Soul
• the Immateriality of the Soul
• Imperfect Souls
• Perfect Souls

Main Subjects

• Islamic Philosophy and Kalam

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