φVoyage of thought

All perspectives

Around 1027

Ibn Sina — Experience with repetition and conditions

Does extensive repetition yield absolute universality, or only a strong judgment within specified conditions?

Ibn Sina Demonstration from The Cure

Evidence-backed account

`al-Burhān` I.9 distinguishes `istiqrāʾ`, which enumerates limited cases, from `tajriba`, which joins repeated sense experience with inference.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): al-Burhān min al-Shifāʾ
Ibn Sīnā; translated and introduced by Hannah C. Erlwein · 2025 · MPIWG Histories of Experience around the Globe #002; Arabic source text from Badawī 1966 with English translation; CC BY 4.0 DE
Locator: Translation, pages 7–10; al-Burhān I.9
Open source
Causation in Arabic and Islamic Thought
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 4.1
Open source

He argues that induction surveying only a limited set of cases does not guarantee absolute universal certainty and may yield only probable belief.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): al-Burhān min al-Shifāʾ
Ibn Sīnā; translated and introduced by Hannah C. Erlwein · 2025 · MPIWG Histories of Experience around the Globe #002; Arabic source text from Badawī 1966 with English translation; CC BY 4.0 DE
Locator: Translation, pages 8–10
Open source
Scientific Methodologies in Medieval Islam
Jon McGinnis · 2003 · Journal of the History of Philosophy 41(3), 307–327
Locator: Pages 309–314
Open source

`Tajriba` involves not only repeated observation but also an implicit inference that what happens always or for the most part is not merely accidental.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): al-Burhān min al-Shifāʾ
Ibn Sīnā; translated and introduced by Hannah C. Erlwein · 2025 · MPIWG Histories of Experience around the Globe #002; Arabic source text from Badawī 1966 with English translation; CC BY 4.0 DE
Locator: Translation, pages 7–9
Open source
Causation in Arabic and Islamic Thought
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Locator: Section 4.1
Open source

The universality supplied by experience is not absolute; it is conditioned by the repeatedly observed domain and the absence of impediments.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): al-Burhān min al-Shifāʾ
Ibn Sīnā; translated and introduced by Hannah C. Erlwein · 2025 · MPIWG Histories of Experience around the Globe #002; Arabic source text from Badawī 1966 with English translation; CC BY 4.0 DE
Locator: Translation, pages 8–9
Open source
Scientific Methodologies in Medieval Islam
Jon McGinnis · 2003 · Journal of the History of Philosophy 41(3), 307–327
Locator: Pages 318–321
Open source

The source does not claim that experience invariably prevents error or always leads to certainty.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): al-Burhān min al-Shifāʾ
Ibn Sīnā; translated and introduced by Hannah C. Erlwein · 2025 · MPIWG Histories of Experience around the Globe #002; Arabic source text from Badawī 1966 with English translation; CC BY 4.0 DE
Locator: Translation, page 9
Open source

The MPIWG sourcebook labels this `al-Burhān` scene “Isfahan, ca. 1027,” treating it as an approximate period rather than an exact date.

Open evidence

This is an evidence-linked editorial paraphrase, not a direct quotation.

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): al-Burhān min al-Shifāʾ
Ibn Sīnā; translated and introduced by Hannah C. Erlwein · 2025 · MPIWG Histories of Experience around the Globe #002; Arabic source text from Badawī 1966 with English translation; CC BY 4.0 DE
Locator: Cover and page 1: Isfahan, ca. 1027
Open source

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