Critiquing the View of the Attribution of Existence to Quiddity

Research regarding any academic topic possesses the required importance and necessity and this importance and necessity is twofold regarding foundational issues and especially if the research topic is one of the topics on which other philosophical issues depend. Certainly, the necessity of research regarding that is considered one of the first priorities. Thus, the topic “Critiquing the View of the Attribution of Existence to Quiddity” holds such importance that if the view of the non-consequentialist critics were to be correct; it would inevitably result in an impasse in the Avicennan philosophical system. In fact, it can be claimed that the measure of the importance of the study, assessment, and reaching the right judgment in this regard is beyond any philosophical issue. And it has been indicated regarding the history of the research that apart from ancient philosophical texts and related works that have been addressed in the three philosophical systems of the Islamic world, no independent works that have addressed this topic have been considered.To find the answer to the main question of the research which is whether the view of the attribution of existence to quiddity is internally incompatible with the essential foundations of Avicenna’s ontology, the author first indicates the difficulty of the attribution of existence to quiddity through the problem statement of the study, explaining the point of conflict, and a short explanation regarding the main terms because considering the founders of the Avicennan, Illuminationist, and Sadrian philosophical systems consider the existence of two primaries in the external world to be incorrect, the question regarding the relationship between existence and quiddity in the mind and external world, and explaining the manner it happens, beyond the primacy and the mentally-positedness of each existence and quiddity, the main concern is that each philosophical system must present a clear answer for that because all three philosophical systems are in consensus on the issue that the relationship between existence and quiddity in the mind is in the form of analytical attributions; that is, existence is attributed to quiddity; however, Shaykh al-Ishraq cites Avicenna’s statement in which he asserts the attribution of existence to quiddity as well as the interpretation that has been made from the words of his student Bahmanyar and assumes that attribution according to Avicenna refers to external attribution and accordingly, in the first judgment with the Peripatetics in the book Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq, he claims that the Peripatetics have based their philosophy on existence whereas existence is mentally-posited and he presents six arguments for the claim that the external attribution of existence to quiddity is incorrect.