Intuition, «hads»

Abstract

Aristotelian notion ἀγχίνοια («sagacity», «quick-wittedness»), determined in the “Second analytics” as the neatness (εὐστοχία) in instantaneous finding of the middle term of syllogism, is specifically reproduced in Arabian sources: in the “Second analytics” it is translated as the “selected ḥads”, in the “Nicomachean Ethics” – as awḏa'īya'l-'aql («perspicacious mentality»). The notion «ḥads» becomes the leading one in the Avicenna’s epistemology, where it means action, by means of which mind itself directly brings out the middle term of syllogism. The matter here concerns the intuition of principles, and, simultaneously, the ability to instantly cover all the stages of discursive thought. Thus, Avicenna’s «ḥads» highly reminds of Cartesian notion intuitus, formulated in the early work Regulae ad directionem ingenii. The one who possesses «ḥads» from the birth doesn’t need teachers and is able, according to the studies of the Islamic philosopher, create all the sciences independently, having reached the prophetical cognition. It is indicative that this very Avicenna’s concept in the Latin tradition had sometimes been reproduced by the term subtilitas, “finesse”, but usually had been reproduced by the term ingenium.