Avicenna on the Analysis of Knowledge

The traditional tripartite analysis of knowledge is “Justified True Belief”. On the other hand, the concept of “al-tasdiq al-yaqini” – i.e. propositional certainty- in Avicenna, known as “al-ilm al-yaqini” has components very similar to those of propositional knowledge in current epistemology. According to Avicenna, “al-tasdiq al-yaqini” is the confirmation of the truth of a given proposition in virtue of knowing the necessitating cause of that proposition. Therefore, the cause of the truth of a certain self-evident proposition is inside the proposition, and that of a certain theoretical proposition is something outer. Also in the case of “Tasdiq Al Yaqini”, he has his own explanation of the structure of justification- which is one of the three conditions of knowledge. Justification in Avicenna is an ilk of infallibilism in a way that justified false beliefs are not, in his view, instances of "al-ilm al-tasdiqi".