The Separation of Entity and Essence in Avicenna's Philosophy along with a Critique of Étienne Gilson's Impression

Indeed studying the philosophical ideas of a philosopher requires a sufficient knowledge of the logics governing those ideas and their basic principles. Likewise, the separation of entity and essence which is one of the significant philosophical issues in Avicenna’s philosophy is only explicable and interpretable by means of an appropriate knowledge of the significance of entity and essence in this philosophy and based on its principles. In addition to its specific meaning (i.e. the nature of things), the issue of essence in Avicenna’s philosophy enjoys two other important roles, which are the “analysis” and “positing” of Divine Knowledge. The separation of entity and essence occurs in the realm of analysis but its scientific positing about the Divine Knowledge determines its ontological aspect. The important point in the interpretation of the relationship between entity and essence is the determination of the nature of entity which shows the fact that it is created by the essence and this is the concept of entity and not the entity itself. The present paper seeks to describe and analyze the aforementioned issue through the principles of Avicenna’s philosophy.