Following al-Fārābī’s approach, Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037) undertakes a new foundation of the First Philosophy based on his own critical systematisation of the Aristotelian theory of science, yielding the result that metaphysics is only possible as a transcendental science, i.e. that not only the subject-matter of metaphysics and its properties but also the arguments by which the first principles of knowledge are defended must be transcendental. This book provides the first systematic reconstruction of Ibn Sīnā’s concept of metaphysics, and, given the considerable influence his achievement had on the Islamic tradition as well as on scholastic philosophers, it is relevant to the study of the history of metaphysics, Islamic theology (kalām), and Arabic philosophy.
