Author Archives: felixschu

This week we thought that for evolution to happen, there needs to be an agent that changes the species to fit the evolutionary step. I disagree, but we believed that. See, it is impossible that there is an accidental natural evolution, unwilled and unintelligent. Just the fact, that some of a species died earlier, wereContinue reading “Week 12”

The theodicy and Avicenna. First cause is abolutely good and cause of all goodness, why not also all that is bad? God must care, he sent prophets to tell us about him, but why would he care that we know about him and behave a certain way? For Avicenna evil takes four forms. Evil asContinue reading “Week 11”

I want to elaborate some more about last weeks blog, I was thinking about proving the need for a cause without inductive reasoning, which I wanted to avoid. So, everything seems to have a cause, therefore there has to be a first cause, doesn’t work at all. Maybe we can call on some spiritual orContinue reading “Week 9”

Do we need to explain? And what is truth worth, if we need to have faith in it’s roots. I strive for a truth that does not need to be explained, a rational analytic truth. If there is so much death and so much suffering, such pointlessness. Why wouldn’t the structure of the universe beContinue reading “Week 8 – Absence”

Metaphysics are the only thing I would consider non-fundamentalist and non-dogmatic. This simple statement is tainted by one thing I believe true. I believe that if a metaphysic is the right metaphysic it should come to a point where it is irrefutably connected to our world. At that point the revelation of truth would unveilContinue reading “Week 7”

Avicenna citizises the Tripartition of the Soul model of Aristotle, that splits the soul into a vegetative, animal and human part. This model includes the physical aspect of the human in the vegetative and animalistic part of the soul, that include elements of growth, reproduction and perception. Avicenna has an idea of substance dualism, whereContinue reading “Week 6 Avicenna”

This class we talked about all of Avicenna’s causes. Anything that can cause another thing, causing agents and their classes. Avicenna distinguishes 8 different modi of agents. 1. knowledgable agent, knows of the effect he causes. Agent #1 splits into different groupings, 1.1. a willed agent 1.2. an agent by coercion. Then, 1.1.1. agent byContinue reading “All The Causes”

Drawing on the first blog I want to further investigate the hunch I had about the infinite regress in Avicenna’s metaphysics. Avicenna considers “being” an accident of something, meaning it is not essentially included in this something. (∀¬God⊨existence∧essence) Avicenna concludes that Existence is not part of the essence, which allows a theological element into hisContinue reading “Avicenna – Class Four”

This week I missed the class, so this blog post will be barren land for productive discourse about the topics discussed in class. I will still be discussing Avicenna. Avicenna’s metaphysical investigation is influenced by his religion, he has to include the possibility of a superhuman existence in his philosophy. I think I assumed thatContinue reading “Reading Avicenna – Week 3”

In the beginning of the Fourth Class: On Existence and Its Causes in Avicenna’s Remarks and Admonitions, a collection of considerations on many topics. The Fourth Class engages in Metaphysics, investigating the nature of that which can exist and trying to bring logical proof for the necessary existence of a god. He begins the FourthContinue reading “Reading Avicenna – Existents”