Deborah L. Black (University of Toronto) "Varieties of Consciousness in Classical Arabic Philosophy."

 Abstract:

In the classical Arabic philosophical tradition, the problem of consciousness—or more precisely, “self-awareness”—is most often associated with the philosopher Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) and his so-called “Flying Man” thought experiment. But Avicenna’s interest in the nature of consciousness is by no means confined to the Flying Man, and he is by no means the only classical Islamic thinker to consider self-awareness and consciousness as important features of our cognitive experience. In this talk I examine the extent to which the spectrum of concerns that we now group under the rubric of consciousness was  recognized in classical Islamic thought, and I explore the role that consciousness played in the speculative systems of Avicenna and other philosophers and theologians.