Project description
A closer look at Avicenna’s neglected biological insights
In the field of philosophical biology, a puzzle has long confounded scholars. It revolves around the role of the influential model for biological investigation by Avicenna (d. 1037), whose approach to understanding the organic body remains a hidden gem in the annals of science and philosophy. Avicenna’s fusion of medical, philosophical, and theological perspectives in his exploration of the material constituent of living beings has largely remained unexplored. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AREB project will illuminate Avicenna’s overlooked legacy, unravelling the secrets of his pioneering biology, whose methodology consists of combining direct observation with unwavering theoretical principles. This project will resurrect Avicenna’s contributions, shedding new light on his enduring influence on life sciences.
Objective
This three-year research and training project will throw new light on Avicenna’s creation of an influential yet neglected model for biological investigation, which centres on the organic body, i.e. the material constituent of living beings. In his biology, Avicenna (d. 1037) combines a medical and a philosophical approach to the body. On the one hand, in a medical fashion, he favours a bottom-up approach to the organic body, which is no longer considered the elusive substrate of the soul in the hylomorphic compound, nor taken in an abstract or general sense, but capable of acquiring its primary determination as a result of chemical interactions. On the other hand, the principles on which Avicenna grounds his investigation of the organic body are still philosophical. This combination brings to light the other crucial novelty of Avicenna’s biology: its cutting-edge methodology, which combines direct observation with theoretical assumptions. To implement his new biology, Avicenna revives botany and zoology by introducing the medical approach to the various forms of organic life into these sciences, thereby using empirical observational methods within a philosophical model governed by theoretical truths that are, in principle, non-negotiable. This new paradigm for life sciences remains operative far beyond the Middle Ages. The centrality of Avicenna’s new biology and its relevance for the subsequent tradition has never been emphasized in scholarship. The proposed project will fill this gap. An accurate examination of primary sources is essential to disentangle the relevant theoretical issues at the core of this project. Thus, the methodology of the proposed research will consist of a jointly philological and philosophical approach. Concretely, this means that the study of the relevant philosophical and scientific issues will be based on first-hand acquaintance with untranslated, unedited or poorly edited, and understudied Greek, Arabic, and Latin texts.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01
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27100 Pavia
Italy
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