The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn YokdhanIbn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic
The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Sec. 62. Having now attain'd to the Knowledge of this Supream Being, of
Permanent Existence, which has no Cause of his own Existence, but is the
Cause why all things else exist; he was desirous to know by what Means
he had attain'd this Knowledge, and by which of his Faculties he had
apprehended this Being. And first he examin'd all his Senses, _viz_. his
Hearing, Sight, Smelling, Tasting and Feeling, and perceiv'd that all
these apprehended nothing but Body, or what was in Body. For the Hearing
apprehended nothing but Sounds, and these came from the Undulation of
the Air, when Bodies are struck one against another. The Sight,
apprehends Colours. The Smelling, Odours. The Taste, Savours. And the
Touch, the Temperatures and Dispositions of Bodies, such as Hardness
Softness, Roughness ad Smoothness. Nor does the Imagination apprehend
any thing, but as it has Length, Breadth and Thickness. Now all these
things which are thus apprehended, are the Adjuncts of Bodies; nor can
these Senses apprehend any thing else, because they are Faculties
diffus'd through Bodies, and divided according to the division of
Bodies, and for that reason cannot apprehend any thing else but
divisible Body. For since this Faculty is diffus'd through the visible
Body, 'tis impossible, but that when it apprehends any thing whatsoever,
that thing so apprehended, must be divided as the Faculty is divided.
For which Reason, no Faculty which is seated in Body, can apprehend any
thing but what is Body, or in it. Now we have already demonstrated, that
this necessarily Existent Being is free in every respect from all
Properties of Body; and consequently not to be apprehended, but by
something which is neither Body, nor any Faculty inherent in Body, nor
has any manner of dependance upon it, nor is either within it, or
without it, nor join'd to it, nor separated from it. From whence it
appear'd to him, that he had apprehended this Being by that which was
his Essence, and gain'd a certain Knowledge of him. And from hence he
concluded, that this Essence was Incorporeal, and free from all the
Properties of Body. And that all his External Part which he saw, was not
in reality his Essence; by that his true Essence was _That_, by which he
apprehended that Absolute Being of necessary Existence.
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