The 'Flying Man' in Avicenna's Treatise 'The Easterners': A Classic of 'Western' Philosophy

The thought experiment of the Flying Man, which Avicenna (d. 1037 CE) develops in several works, is controversial among scholars.

But interestingly, the difference in interpretations has less to do with the content of the Flying Man than with its function.

The dispute revolves around the question of what the Flying Man is for, what argumentative function it has, what Avicenna wants to show.

By providing a critical edition of the psychology chapter from Avicenna's treatise 'The Easterners', I would like to shed new light on this question and show that the Flying Man is not an answer to the question of the nature of the soul. But neither is he a bridge to the discussion of substantiality that follows. What is he then?

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