A Study of the Roots of the Theory of Existential Poverty of Contingent Beings in Avicennian Philosophy

In the problem of the yardstick of effect's need to cause it is well-known that the pre-Sadrian philosophers believe in the essential possibility of effects, that is to say they held that the non-requirement of essence of effect in relation to being and non-being is the factor of effect’s need to cause. In contrast, Sadr al-Mutaallihin on the basis of fundamental principle of principality of existence and non-reality of contingent beings not in their quiddity and therefore believes in the theory of existential poverty. With further investigations and tracing the roots of this theory, in some of Ibn Sina's works it can be said that he also has paid attention to the theory of existential poverty. Ibn Sina by distancing himself clearly from Aristotelian tradition on the problem of causality and attention to divine agency, regards the cause as giving existence to effect and with different statements declares that the poverty of need of effect to cause lies in his existence. Therefore, besides rejecting the view of theologians who considered temporal contingency the yardstick of the need to cause, in comparison to previous sages says who regarded the yardstick of the need to cause in the nature of the non-requirement of effect, Ibn Sina goes a step further and in some statements explicitly states that the factor of effect's need to cause is the reason of its dependant existence which is the very reality of the effect. However, giving the scattered and different statements of Ibn Sina on the yardstick of effect's need to cause he can not be regarded as supporting the theory of existential poverty. But by tracing the indications of this theory in his works it shows that he can be regarded as the precursor of this novel Sadrian theory.