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Part of a larger work · 11th century

دَانِشْنَامَهٔ عَلَائِی

Dānishnāma-yi ʿAlāʾī (logic)

Ibn Sīnā · d. 428/1037

The Book of Knowledge for ʿAlāʾ al-Dawla is Ibn Sīnā's philosophical compendium in Persian, written for the Kakuyid ruler whom he served as vizier; Gutas dates it to 418/1027. Its logic summarises the main issues of the Shifāʾ: conception and assent, the three forms of proof (syllogism, induction and analogy), the kinds of premises and the limits of dialectic. It is notable for rendering the technical terms in Persian, for example andar-rasīdan for taṣawwur and girawīdan for taṣdīq. Al-Ghazālī's Maqāṣid al-falāsifa is a loose Arabic adaptation of it, so through the Latin Logica Algazelis it also reached medieval Europe.

Draft · awaiting review by a qualified teacher

Author
Ibn Sīnā
Died
428/1037
Written
11th century
Language
Persian

Editions and translations

الطَّبَعات

  • Manṭiq, ed. Muḥammad Mishkāt, Tehran 1331 Sh./1952
  • Risāla-yi Manṭiq-i Dānishnāma-yi ʿAlāʾī, ed. Muḥammad Muʿīn and Muḥammad Mishkāt, Tehran 1353 Sh./1974
  • tr. Farhang Zabeeh, Avicenna's Treatise on Logic: Part One of Danesh-Name Alai, The Hague: Nijhoff, 1971
  • French tr. M. Achena and H. Massé, Le Livre de science, 2 vols, Paris 1955–58

Also by Ibn Sīnā

Sources (3)

  1. Encyclopaedia Iranica: Dāneš-nāma-ye ʿAlāʾī (H. Dabashi)
  2. CiNii Books: Avicenna's treatise on logic (Zabeeh, 1971)
  3. PhilPapers: Linked bibliography for the SEP article 'Ibn Sina'