Q0562
“Suppose a person were created at once, fully mature, but with sight…” — Avicenna (The Healing, Psychology (“Floating Man”))
Verified English quotation. Primary source: The Healing, Psychology (“Floating Man”). Theme: self.
English
Suppose a person were created at once, fully mature, but with sight veiled and limbs outstretched so that he touched nothing; he would affirm his own existence without affirming any body.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to The Healing, Psychology (“Floating Man”) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Avicenna
Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, 980–1037) wrote The Healing and The Canon of Medicine, dominating Islamic and later Latin curricula. Born near Bukhara, he synthesized Aristotelian and Neoplatonic themes into a system centered on the Necessary Existent and an immortal rational soul.
How to read this passage
To ask about the self is to ask what persists through experience, what can be known from the first-person point of view, and how character is formed. Some traditions treat the self as a substantial soul; others as a stream of experience, a social role, or a practical center of agency. This passage enters that discussion through self, knowledge.
Concepts in this quote
- Self
- Philosophy quotes about self explore identity, responsibility, and the examined life—from Socrates’ unexamined life to modern phenomenology and existential authenticity.
- Knowledge
- Knowledge is the philosophical study of what we can justifiably claim to know—and where certainty ends.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Avicenna. (n.d.). Suppose a person were created at once, fully mature, but with sight veiled and limbs outstretched so that he touched nothing; he would affirm his own existence without affirming any body. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0562
MLA: Avicenna. “Suppose a person were created at once, fully….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0562.
Chicago: Avicenna. “Suppose a person were created at once, fully….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0562.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “Suppose a person were created at once, fully…”?
The passage is attributed to Avicenna, The Healing, Psychology (“Floating Man”). The archive attributes this English wording to The Healing, Psychology (“Floating Man”) and files it under Islamic Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Avicenna mean by self?
To ask about the self is to ask what persists through experience, what can be known from the first-person point of view, and how character is formed. Some traditions treat the self as a substantial soul; others as a stream of experience, a social role, or a practical center of agency. This passage enters that discussion through self, knowledge.