The ‘Treatise on Eternity and Immortality of the Soul’ of Ibn Kammuna

Abstract

We present a Spanish translation of Treatise on eternity and immortality of the soul (Maqāla fî anna nafs al-Abadi wujud wa-baqā'aha Sarmadi), of Ibn Kammuna, a Jewish philosopher of 13th century. We believe that the text, pending on a direct translation from the original, deserves a provisional version from a series of reasons that may call attention to the researcher interested in the study of natural philosophy and its history. First, because he was one of the few thinkers who defended the theory of the individuation of the essence of the soul and therefore, their multiplicity, before the substantial union with the body happens.  Second, because in his time and context supporting this thesis implied a confrontation with the supposed authority of Avicenna, who supported precisely the opposite view. And finally, because of the formal and non-physical method, as might be expected, used to solve the problems of physical and logical nature proposed by the Persian thinker. Regarding the second issue contained in the title, i.e., the defense of the immortality of the soul, Ibn Kammuna did not but continue the line of the typical thought of the creationist paradigm from which he spread out his thinking.