States of the Soul

A Treatise on the Soul, its Survival, and its Return

No philosopher is without discourse on the human soul, for it is the closest of things to us, yet despite its proximity, it remains profoundly mysterious. Each time thinkers imagined they had gained more knowledge of it, reached the truth of its nature, uncovered its secret, and understood its essence, they found that knowledge to be a mirage and the essence a captivating illusion. To this day, we remain where Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were, indeed, even further from the truth. For this reason, modern science has turned away from seeking it, contenting itself with analyzing psychological phenomena and leaving the realm of essence to philosophers to traverse, hoping they might one day reach the truth of the soul. Ibn Sina sought knowledge of the soul from his early youth because "whoever knows himself has known his Lord." Ibn Sina and his theory of the soul had a great influence in the European Middle Ages; it was translated into Latin and widely disseminated among European philosophers. European thought was subject to its influence from the twelfth century until the seventeenth century, when Descartes appeared and adopted Ibn Sina's proof for the existence of the soul. As for the impact of Avicennan psychology on Islamic philosophers, it requires no proof; later generations acknowledged his leadership, calling him the "Chief Master" (al-Shaykh al-Ra'is), and emulated his example in most areas of psychology.