Rational Character and Immortal Happiness: Ibn Sina’s View on the Role of Intellect in Afterlife Happiness

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Muslim philosophers regard the intellect or the rational soul as the constituent of the nature of men which is what distinguishes humans from other creatures. The intellect has two major powers: the power to know and the power to act. In this paper I will deal with the role of the intellect in happiness and its degrees on the basis of the degrees of the soul’s rational faculty. According to Ibn Sina, the happiness and atrocity of humans in the afterlife depends on the theoretical and practical position of the rational soul and since the immortal happiness and atrocity depend on the theoretical condition of the intellect, there will be two main groups of people: those who have achieved the theoretical perfection of the intellect (thus enjoy happiness), and those who do not enjoy such a perfection (thus in atrocity). Therefore, Ibn Sina merely emphasizes on the spiritual and intellectual immortality and believes that bodily characters do not bring about any changes in the essence of the rational soul.

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