Title: La notion de participation dans la philosophie d’Avicenne : Études historiques et doctrinales
Author: Dr. Estiphan Panoussi
Original Submission: Université Catholique de Louvain, 1967
Scope: History of philosophy, metaphysics, Islamic philosophy, comparative philosophy
 
This dissertation is a comprehensive historical and doctrinal investigation of the concept of participation (participatio / mosharaka) in the philosophy of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā). It challenges the prevailing view that Avicenna’s metaphysics is merely an extension or systematization of Greek (especially Aristotelian) philosophy, arguing instead that Avicenna’s notion of participation represents a synthetic philosophical achievement rooted in Greek, Iranian (Zoroastrian), and Islamic intellectual traditions.
 
Central Thesis
 
The core thesis is that participation is the key structural principle that unifies Avicenna’s metaphysics, ontology, cosmology, epistemology, and ethics. Participation explains how essence and existence, necessity and possibility, good and evil, and intelligible and sensible realms relate without collapsing into monism, pantheism, or radical dualism.
 
Against interpretations that read Avicenna as advocating a univocal concept of being, Panoussi demonstrates that Avicenna operates with an analogical and participatory ontology, in which beings receive existence according to their capacity from the Necessary Being, who alone possesses existence essentially.
 
Structure of the Dissertation
 
Part I: Historical Studies (Études historiques)
 
This section situates Avicenna within a broad intellectual genealogy.
Avicenna and Greek Philosophy
Panoussi examines Avicenna’s engagement with Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonism, showing that while Avicenna adopts Greek conceptual tools, he transforms them within a new metaphysical framework.
Avicenna and Islamic Thought
The dissertation clarifies Avicenna’s relationship to Islamic theology (kalām), philosophy (falsafa), and mysticism, distinguishing his metaphysical method from purely theological or juridical reasoning.
Oriental and Iranian Sources
A major contribution of the work is its demonstration of Iranian (Zoroastrian) influence, particularly in the treatment of good and evil, necessity and possibility, and dualism without ontological symmetry. Panoussi shows that Avicenna inherits a worldview in which participation mediates between opposing principles without granting them equal ontological status.
Origins of Participation
The notion of participation is traced from Zoroaster and Plato through Aristotle and Plotinus, establishing a historical continuum that culminates in Avicenna’s synthesis.
 
Part II: Doctrinal Studies (Études doctrinales)
 
This section offers a detailed internal analysis of Avicenna’s philosophy.
Terminology of Participation
Panoussi analyzes Avicenna’s technical vocabulary, clarifying how participation operates linguistically and conceptually across Avicenna’s logical, metaphysical, and cosmological works.
Essence and Existence
The dissertation explains Avicenna’s crucial distinction between essence (māhiyya) and existence (wujūd). Existence is described as a transcendental accident—not accidental in the Aristotelian categorical sense, but something that essences must receive through participation.
Necessary Being and Possible Beings
God is identified as the per se Necessary Being, in whom essence and existence are identical. All other beings are necessary by participation but possible in themselves, receiving existence through continuous creation (ibdāʾ).
The Square of Being
Panoussi introduces a powerful conceptual model—the Square of Being—to map:
This model clarifies how participation by similarity and composition operates, and why certain dualisms arise historically.
Necessary Being
Absolute matter
Participated being
Participated essence
Good, Evil, and Ontological Distance
Evil is not a positive principle but a function of distance from the Necessary Being. This view aligns Avicenna with an Iranian-influenced metaphysical ethics rather than Aristotelian moderation or Manichean dualism.
Active Intellect and Knowledge
The dissertation explains Avicenna’s theory of universals and the Active Intellect as the dator formarum, mediating between intelligible forms and human cognition. Knowledge is participatory, not merely abstract.
 
Scholarly Contribution and Significance
 
This dissertation is significant for several reasons:
It reframes Avicenna as a philosopher of participation rather than univocal being.
It provides one of the earliest and most rigorous demonstrations of Iranian philosophical influence on Islamic and Western metaphysics.
It anticipates later debates in Thomism, Neoplatonism, and comparative philosophy regarding analogy, emanation, and participation.
It offers conceptual tools (notably the Square of Being) that remain analytically powerful.
 
In sum, the dissertation presents Avicenna as a systematic metaphysician of participation, whose philosophy bridges ancient Iranian thought, Greek metaphysics, and Islamic intellectual traditions into a coherent and enduring philosophical synthesis.