“Incepit quasi a se”: Averroes on Avicenna’s Philosophy in the Long Commentary on the De anima

The article has three interrelated aims. First, to analyze a crucial passage of the Long Commentary on the De Anima by Averroes (Ibn Rušd, d. 1198 CE), one of the most informative criticisms of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d. 1037 CE) devised by the Commentator, unraveling its details by means of similar passages in other Aristotelian commentaries and other works by Averroes. Second, to emphasize the historical importance of this passage as a precious testimonium of the entrance of Avicenna’s philosophy in Andalusia, documenting that, in this text and in other quotations, Averroes’ knowledge of Avicenna’s thought is probably based on a given summa by Avicenna, the Kitāb al-Šifāʾ (Book of the Cure, or: of the Healing), apparently known first-hand. Finally, to advance the possibility that, in what he says about Avicenna in the passage under discussion, Averroes may depend on the Introduction of the Kitāb al-Šifāʾ authored by al-Ǧūzǧānī.