Ibn Sina’s The Floating Man
“One of us must suppose that he was just created at a stroke, fully developed and perfectly formed but with his vision shrouded from perceiving all external objects – created floating in the air or in the space”
This is the introduction to The Floating Man, one of the most influential thought experiments in the Philosophy of Mind and Body. Written by 11th century Islamic philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicenna), it is the first major thought experiment to establish the existence of the self (or consciousness) outside the existence of the body.
The premise is as described above — a person is created floating in the air, feeling no sensations and perceiving no external objects. This individual would have no physical experiences, and would lack any feelings even from his own body. This un-seeing, un-touching, and un-feeling individual would, however, still claim the truth of his own existence. As written by Ibn Sina:
“There is no doubt that he would affirm his own existence, although not affirming the reality of any of his limbs or inner organs, his bowels, or heart or brain or any external thing. Indeed he would affirm the existence of this self of his while not affirming that it had any length, breadth or depth. And if it were possible for him in such a state to imagine a hand or any other organ, he would not imagine it to be a part of himself or a condition of his existence.”
This thought experiment attempts to separate the body from the mind, establishing in its explanation what Descartes would proclaim centuries later: “I think, therefore I am”. Even without the presence of sensory awareness, simply with his mind’s intellectual existence, Ibn Sina’s Floating Man can deduce himself. Therefore, the body must not be unified with the mind, and our existence must be linked to the latter rather than the former, as we are capable of experiencing our existence only with the mind.
Within Ibn Sina’s historical and cultural context as a leading thinker of the Islamic Golden Age, it is unsurprising that he took the Floating Man as a proof of something further, the soul. If we can experience the self without experiencing our bodies, then we must be able to experience the self without a body. The conclusion: an immaterial soul without physical limitations, and therefore unbounded from death.