29 juin 2022
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.4324/9781003258704-4
John Michael Chase, « Experience and Knowledge among the Greeks: From the Presocratics to Avicenna », HAL-SHS : philosophie, ID : 10.4324/9781003258704-4
Traces the development of the idea of experience (Greek peira, empeiria) in Greek thought,from its origins in the Presocratics, through Aristotle and subsequent Peripatetics(Theophrastus, Alexander of Aphrodisias), to Galen. Particular emphasis is placed on the ideasof the medical school of the Empirics, who based their theory and practice on experience andmemory. This experience-based epistemology can be traced back to the “epistemic modesty”characteristic of Archaic Greek thought. Some passages in Avicenna, redolent of Sufism, whichreact to perceived shortcomings in the Aristotelian theory of cognition and demonstration(especially the ineffability of individuals) may have been influenced by the medical Empiristtradition. This emphasis on experience, shared by Archaic Greek thought, medical Empirism,and by certain aspects of Buddhism, may have influenced Islamic Sufism, and hence thethought of Avicenna and his successors.