A comparison of İbn Sīnā and Sigmund Freud in the context of knowledge and dream

Dreams are an important phenomenon in human life. In some cultures and beliefs, the relationship of dreams that shape daily life of a person with human physiology and psychology has been revealed by many thinkers from past to present. Ibn Sînâ an important philosopher of Islamic thought, and Sigmund Freud an important representative of modern thought, are two thinkers who have dealt with human dreams in connection with human psychology. Ibn Sînâ acknowledged psychological dimension of dreams as well as means of attaining universal and unseen knowledge. Ibn Sînâ regarded human mind's attainment of reason as dependent on moderation of temperament and purification of soul. After this point, Ibn Sînâ, who thought that dreams would turn into a tool of knowledge, supported this idea with theory of prophethood. The value that Ibn Sînâ attaches to inner sense imagination ability on dreaming also expresses one of key concepts of his epistemology. Sigmund Freud, who thinks that dream is a reflection of human psychology; he analyzed dreams with psychoanalytic method has been developed and aimed to discover tendencies of human psychology and unconscious behind formation of dreams. The point that dreams give important clues about person's access to information and personality of dreamer; It has been determined by views of two thinkers on dreams. In this respect, our study has discussed whether the phenomenon of dream can be accepted as an epistemological value, within the meaning that both thinkers attribute to the sources of knowledge and divine knowledge, and revealed the mental paradigms of period they lived in.