The Self-Consciousness of the Soul in the Context of Avicenna’s Flying Man Theory

While the concepts of zat/self, shu'ūr/consciousness, and al-shuʿūr bi-l-dhāt/self-consciousness have come to the fore more in connection with the concept of mind in modern studies in the field of philosophy of mind particularly in light of neuro-biology and neuro-physiology, these concepts have a long history of usage in both Islamic and Western thought, dating back to the earliest periods. In his thought experiment, the Flying Man theorem, Avicenna (c. 980–1037 CE), one of the most influential philosophers of Islamic thought, addressed the relationship between the soul and the body, the essence of the soul, the question of whether the soul has a separate and independent existence from the body, and the nature of consciousness. In his theory, which he discusses with partial differences in different works, Avicenna, initially posited that the soul has a separate and distinct existence from the body and that the soul has an immaterial essence. In the second stage, offered an indirect explanation of the existence of a single essence, namely the dhāt which prioritizes the functions of the different faculties of the immaterial, separate, and distinct realities of the soul and uniting these functions with the consciousness of 'I'. Nevertheless, there have been numerous interpretations of the objective that Avicenna sought to establish with his theory. While some have argued that he dealt with the essence and existence of the soul in his theory, others have argued that he also grounded the self-consciousness of the soul in addition to this. In this study, Avicenna's theory of the flying man, will be discussed, and the main purpose of the theory will be revealed depending on the explanation of the theory. Then, it will be explained what he means by the soul being in the consciousness of its own dhāt. Avicenna's distinction between the consciousness of the self (al-shu'ūr bi-zāt) and the consciousness of consciousness (al-shu'ūr bi al-shu'ūr) will be evaluated. As a result, it will be justified that although Avicenna's theorizing primarily deals with the soul as having an immaterial essence, separate and distinct from the body, at a secondary level he also aims to prove that the soul is conscious of its own essence.