Abstract

Like his Greek and Arab predecessors, Avicenna’s research in mathematics concerned the development of methods of exposition, proof procedures and analytical tools. But Avicenna belonged to a new era of mathematics, and the question that this paper seeks to examine is how Avicenna applied this new mathematical knowledge in his philosophy. A treatment of the subject of Avicenna and mathematics cannot, then, confine itself to generalities, important as these are, but must start from the degree of knowledge he had of the various branches and the use he actually made of them. I shall restrict myself here to a number of examples which seem to me to possess evidential value and which all reveal a new conception of the connections between philosophy and mathematics. It will turn out that what Avicenna in fact did was to develop an analytical philosophy of mathematical concepts.