The Distinction Between Existence and Essence and the Issue of the Independence of Science from Theology Based on Avicenna's Rationalist Metaphysical System

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD in Philosophy, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Philosophy Department, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran

Abstract

In Avicenna’s era, intellectually and culturally, science was subsumed under theology, and particular sciences were conceived as secondary/subsidiary to theology and religion. The author's primary question is how Avicenna confronted this challenge and what solution he proposed to rescue particular sciences from the dominance of theology. As a prominent philosopher and metaphysician, Avicenna identified the fundamental cause of science's subordination to theology in the attribution of the laws of nature to divine will and habit. To resolve this crisis, Avicenna distinguished existence from essence, thereby freeing the laws of nature from direct reliance on divine will and grounding particular sciences within the autonomous realm of essence. Consequently, he governed particular sciences by the logic of the world of independent essences. By situating particular sciences within the realm of essence, these sciences became systematized through the necessity and universality inherent in this domain, ultimately transforming into calculable and predictable elements. Finally, despite the methodological independence of particular sciences, their epistemological principles and presuppositions are referred back to philosophy, ensuring that the fundamental link between philosophical thought and the epistemic structure of the sciences is preserved at a foundational, non-theological level. This article has been written using a descriptive-analytical method.

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References

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Journal of Philosophical Investigations
Volume 20, Issue 56 - Serial Number 56
Articles
Issue 56, Autumn 2026
October 2026
Pages 799-816

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