Ibn Kammuna (d.683/1284) on the eternity of the human soul: The three treatises on the soul and related texts

`Izz al-Dawla Sa`d ibn Mans&dotbelow;ur Ibn Kamm una (d. 1284) was a Jewish philosopher active after the Mongol conquest of Baghdad. He is known to Western scholars mainly for his comparative works on religion; this dissertation wishes to draw attention to the sophistication of his much more extensive philosophical work.;The object of this dissertation is what Ibn Kammuna considers his most original contribution to philosophy: his argument for the eternity a parte ante of the human soul. By the thirteenth century, most philosophers in the East of the Islamic world share the view of Avicenna (Ibn Sina, d. 1037) on the origination and eternity a parte post of the human soul. Ibn Kammuna rejects this consensus and claims that the incorporeality and eternity a parte post of the human soul can be proven only if it is first established that the soul is eternal a parte ante.;The purpose of this dissertation is to understand why Ibn Kamm una rejects the consensus of his predecessors and contemporaries, how he establishes the eternity a parte ante of the human soul and (on this basis) its incorporeality and eternity a parte post , and how his critique and his arguments relate to other critical approaches in post-Avicennan philosophy.;This is accomplished through a close analysis of Ibn Kammu na's treatises on the soul and related texts. First, I highlight the basic concepts which inform Ibn Kammuna's arguments (conception and assent, self-evidence, modes of being, the concept of the complete cause, the temperament of the body, and the nature of the human soul). Then I point out the issues on which Ibn Kammuna disagrees with the Avicennan account and identify Abu al-Barak at al-Bagdadi (d. 1164) and Fahr al-Din al-Raz i (d. 1209) as likely precursors of his critique. Finally, I analyze Ibn Kammuna's arguments for the incorporeality and eternity a parte post of the human soul on the basis of its eternity a parte ante, paying special attention to the premises of his arguments and how they are grounded in the basic concepts highlighted at the outset of the dissertation.