A Brief Outline of Ibn Sina's Conception of Number

• Autor(a) principal: Tahiri, Hassan
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.rcaap.pt/boletimspm/article/view/17790
• topic: Artigos

Ibn Sı̄nā (980-1037), one of the influential philosopher-scientists of the classical Arabic-Islamic tradition who was known to the West by the Latinised name Avicenna, has introduced a major shift in the philosophy of mathematics that is neither Platonist nor Aristotelian, his conception of number is constructed in 5 stages: 1. The recognition that mathematical entities are intentional objects and that this amounts to provide an intentional notion of existence; 2. The specific act of repetition inferred from apprehending unity; 3. The generation of numbers: 3.1. Generation of number two as first element; 3.2. Generation of infinity by an epistemic agent.