Ontological Status of the four Natures in Jabir ibn Hayyan’s Natural Philosophy: Its differences and similarities with antecedent traditions

Document Type : Scientific-research

Author

Department of History of Science, Faculty of History and Philosophy of Science, IHCS, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The four natures hold a special and important place in the natural philosophy theories of Jabir ibn Hayyan, to the extent that his natural philosophy can be termed "the physics of natures." Few primary texts attributed to Jabir can be found that do not discuss the natures in detail. From a historical perspective, there are many similarities between Jabir's theories and those of natural philosophers before him regarding the four natures; however, some of his claims raise the hypothesis that Jabir's theory is distinct, particularly in terms of the ontology of the natures. The basis of Jabir's view, influenced by his thoroughly pragmatic perspective, is that qualities are independent, embodied entities that, like physical materials, can combine with one another or be separated from each other. Nevertheless, this hypothesis—the distinctiveness and novelty of Jabir's claim—requires analyzing and comparing his detailed theories on the subject of natures with the prominent and well-known physical traditions preceding him, namely the Aristotelian, Platonic, Stoic, and Neoplatonic traditions of natural philosophy. The main issue of this article is to explain the ontological status of the four natures in Jabir's thought and to assess the degree of its distinctiveness based on texts and content related to the subject.

Keywords

References

Archer-Hind, R, D. (1888). “The Timœus of Plato”. Mind, 14(53), 79-180.
Aristotle (1998). On Generation and Corruption, translated by Ismāʿīl Saʿādat. Tehran: Markaz-e Nashr-e-Daneshgahi. [In Persian]
Aristotle (2024). Physics, translated by Ismāʿīl Saʿādat. Tehran: Hermes. [In Persian]
Brunschwig, J. (2004). A False Start? In Frans de Haas & Jaap Mansfeld, Aristotle on generation and corruption, Vol. 1: Symposium Aristotelicum. New York: Clarendon Press.
Grimes, S. (2018). Becoming Gold. Rubedo Press.
Hahm, D. E. (1977). The Origins of Stoic Cosmology. Ohio: Ohio State University Press.
Haq, S. N. (1944). Names, Natures and Things. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
Ismaʿili, M. J., & Mashayekhi, S. (2015). “Theory of Continuity in Stoic Physics”. History of Philosophy, 6(1), 65-96. magiran.com/p1480186 [In Persian]
Jâbir ibn Hayyân (1893). Kitābul Habīb, edited by Berthelot. Paris: International Pub.
Jâbir ibn Hayyân (1953). Mukhtār rasāil Jâbir ibn Hayyân (Inc. of Book of Extraction, Book of Collection, Book of Morphology, Book of Seventy, Book of Balance-in-Minor): selected Treatises by Jâbir ibn Hayyân, edited by Kraus P. Cairo: al-Khanji Booksellers.
Kraus, P. (1986). Jâbir ibn Hayyân—Contribution à l’histoire des idées scientifiques dans l’Islam—Jâbir et la science grecque. Reprint of Vol. 2 of 1942, Cairo edition. Paris: Les Belles Letters.
Manco, C., & Martelli, M. (2024). “Is Gold Yellow? Plant Dyes and Gold-Making in the Ancient Chemical Arts”. Ambix, 71(1), 10-34. doi: 10.1080/00026980.2024.2309061
Motevallian, A. (2019). “Is Jaberian Mizan low Essentialist?” Philosophy of Science, 9(17), 61-82. doi: 10.30465/ps.2019.4163 [In Persian]
Reesor, M. E. (1954). “The Stoic Concept of Quality”. American Journal of Philology, 75(1), 49-50. doi: 10.2307/291904
Rinotas, A. (2017). “Stoicism and Alchemy in Late Antiquity: Zosimus and the Concept of Pneuma.” Ambix, 64, 3, 203-219. doi: 10.1080/00026980.2017.1412134
Sambursky, S. (1959). Physics of the Stoics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Sorabji, R. (1988). Matter, Space, and Motion: Theories in Antiquity and Their Sequel. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Struycken, P. (2003). “Colour Mixtures According to Democritus and Plato”. Mnemosyne, 56(3), 297-299.
Taylor, F. S. (1937). “The Origin of Greek Alchemy”. Ambix, 38, 30-41. doi: 10.1179/amb.1937.1.1.3

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics