Natural Matter in Avicenna's Philosophy

In the present article, the focus of study and analysis is the ‘matter’ as a common subject for science and philosophy. Accordingly, we first mention the views of some philosophers and authorities – both early and recent – on matter, and then we analyze the matter as prime matter, secondary matter, empirical matter and their relationship. The notion of matter in Islamic philosophy has not altered in centuries for long, and marvelous scientific findings in this regard have not influenced Muslim philosophers. Accordingly, these definitions have nothing to do with matter studied by empirical sciences. In the present article, we show that if we look at matter from a newer angle, we may find a proper relationship between argumentative matter in Islamic philosophy and the empirical matter in new science.