Islamic Philosophy and Causation

Recent scholarship in classical Islamic philosophy has shown that the tradition has much to offer when it comes to the metaphysics of causality. The present article seeks to add to the scholarship by providing a new interpretation of one aspect of Avicenna’s account of causality known as the “Rule of One” (henceforth, RO). Seeming to originate with Avicenna, the RO states that “From that which is one, only one can proceed.” The aim of this brief article is to examine Avicenna’s argument in Metaphysics IX.4. The reconstruction of the argument adds to a growing body of English literature on the topic of Avicenna’s contribution to causality and provides a necessary exegetical understanding of his work that enables a deeper understanding of the Islamic tradition. By focusing on Avicenna’s argument in Metaphysics IX.4 the present article seeks to pick up where other commentators have left off, explaining why Avicenna holds to the RO when it comes to his cosmology.