Part and Instrument, Science and Method – Avicenna’s View on the Status of Logic in Šifāʾ, Qiyās I, 2 against the Background of the Graeco-Syriac and Arabic Tradition

The aim of this contribution is to re-examine Avicenna’s (Ibn Sīnā, d. 427H / 1037) own view on the status of logic by considering a hitherto little analysed chapter from his reworking of Aristotle’s Prior Analytics(Kitāb al-Qiyās) in the Book of Healing(Kitāb al-Šifāʾ), namely QiyāsI, 2. Avicenna’s work stands at the confluence of earlier Greek and Syriac exegetical traditions, which are like tributaries of the vast stream of knowledge translated and assimilated into Arabic from the eighth century onwards. It therefore appears appropriate to read Avicenna’s position against the background of his sources and to frame his contribution within the broader picture of the Late Antique and Medieval debate. To this end, the present paper begins from the origins, presenting the debate on the status of logic in the Graeco-Syriac tradition (section 1); it then shifts focus to the Arabic reception of this debate in order to examine Avicenna’s own response against the background of his (direct and indirect) sources (section 2).