The Background of the Essential Primary Predication (al-ḥaml al-awwalī al-dhātī): Avicenna’s Analysis of the Meaning of Predication

Abstract

Abstract Predication is one of the significant issues in Islamic philosophical logic. “Essential Primary Predication” (al-ḥaml al-awwalī al-dhātī) is a new type of predication found mainly in late Islamic philosophers. The historical background of this predication is one of the controversial topics among postṢadrīan thinkers, but it seems that it must be sought in Avicenna’s discussions on the meaning of predication. To show this, I will focus on two fragments in which Avicenna talks about the meaning of predication; one in al-Ishārāt wa alTanbīhāt (Pointers and Reminders) and the other in Manṭiq alMashriqīyyīn (The Logic of the Easterners). In Ishārāt, we read that in a proposition like “A is B”, what we mean is that “What is A is B”, not that “The ḥaqīqa of A is the ḥaqīqa of B”. Perhaps because the meaning of the word ḥaqīqa is a bit unclear here, post-Avicennan thinkers preferred to connect this to a fragment in Manṭiq al-Mashriqīyyīn, which explains that when we say “A is B” we don’t mean that “the meaning of A is the meaning of B”. There is a long history of discussion about what exactly Avicenna wants to exclude here. However, quite contrary to what Avicenna says, late Islamic philosophers clearly talk about a kind of predication, i.e. “Essential Primary Predication”, which, in propositions like “A is B”, points to the fact that “the meaning or concept of A is the meaning or concept of B”. Obviously, there is a gap here; a gap that I will partly fill by showing some of the historical discussions that led to this shift. My approach to all of this is textual analysis, including describing, interpreting and understanding what has come as a continuation and interpretation of what Avicenna has said here.