The comparative study of substantial view of human soul from Avicenna viewpoint and contemporary philosophy of mind

Belief in the substantiality of the human soul is a fundamental point of view for Ibn Sina and is considered one of the foundations of Ibn Sina’s anthropology. The issue of the substantiality of the soul is fundamental for Ibn Sina, because it justify the issue of the immortality of the human soul, and for this reason, he defends this doctrine in detail and citing several types of reasons. Instead, most of the contemporary views in the philosophy of mind deny the substantiality of the soul and consider it as a property derived from physiological and brain processes. Although Avicenna's main reason for the separation of the soul is based on the distinction of intellectual perception from other bodily processes, at the same time, by utilizing other proofs and by using the phenomenological approaches of perceptions and reflection on the relationship between the soul and the body, he also defend the separation and substantiality of the soul and uses this in the construction of the famous proof of the man suspended in space and has benefited from this kind of experimental evidence. In this article, while introducing Ibn Sina's point of view, his arguments are examined from a comparative point of view, taking into account the contemporary views of philosophy of mind and advances in biological and neuroscience, and this teaching will be critically examined.