The concept of tashabbuh in Avicenna

While tashabbuh, which expresses the process of resembling something in the lexicon, reflects the desire to resemble an entity to which a person tends at the individual and social level; In philosophical literature, it refers to the effort to resemble God. It emerges as an important concept in Islamic Philosophy, which is included in one of the traditional definitions of philosophy and reflects the effort to resemble God's actions in proportion to man's power. This study, titled The Concept of Tashabbuh in Avicenna, tries to reveal the background, conceptual framework and content of tashabbuh in Avicenna's thought. In the background, the etymological structure, nature, basic principles and ontological and cosmological context of the concept are discussed. In the conceptual framework, concepts such as soul, mind, love, action and purpose are handled from various angles that they provide in understanding tashabbuh. In terms of its content in Avicenna's thought, the concept is tried to be put forward in three different dimensions. The first one expresses the attempt that takes place at the level of food and nutrition in the bodily (bio-physiological) dimension. This dimension is based on the fact of replacing the dissolved one by transforming the food into the nature of the body it feeds, in order to ensure competence and stability in plants and animals. Latter; It is rational tashabbuh, which is related to the rationalization process of the human soul. This stage is the main framework of the concept and indicates the process of human being like a god, which is expressed by one of the traditional definitions of philosophy. In this definition, which describes philosophy in terms of its distant purpose, tashabbuh has expressed the intellectual-ethical development of man in the long period from Plato to the transfer of philosophical thought to the Islamic world. The third one is the act of resembling the celestial souls to discrete minds as a factor that ensures the continuous circular motion of the celestial bodies. The common goal of tashabbuh, which takes place in these three different dimensions, is the peace and survivability of the related being in every dimension. Finally, to complement the thesis, the relationship of tashabbuh-taste and tashabbuh-nature is given. Keywords: Avicenna, Tashabbuh, Food, Soul, Reason, Celestial Souls.