Basic Concepts Of Metaphysics Of Kindî

Abstract

This paper is a study of “meta-varlık (being)”. As a meta-varlık study, it focuses on the concept of varlık (being) in Kindi’s metaphysics and his ontology. Because Kindi is the first Islamic philosopher and known as “philosopher of Arab”. Kindi provides a logical connection between al-Kalam and Philosophy. He defines philosophy in various ways in terms of theory and practice. He would also like to thank predecessors engaged in philosophy before him. He is the first metaphysical author in Islamic thought and is a thinker who wrote the first dictionary of philosophy in the history of Islamic philosophy. He is a member of the translation committee of the Bayt al-hikma. His work is entitled by Aristotle as “First Philosophy”. Philosophical terminology in Islamic thought is based on his metaphysics. In other words, Islamic metaphysics is crucial for the metaphysics in Turkish and Kindî’s terminology is crucial for Islamic metaphysics. His metaphysics is the beginning of Islamic metaphysics. This beginning is an introduction to the metaphysics in Turkish. Because he is the controller of the terminology of philosophy translated into Arabic and uses it in his works.

This article is not the first study of the Kindi metaphysics. There is also no such a claim. However, as a meta-varlık (being) study, this article focuses “beyond” the concept of “being (varlık)” in Turkish. Furthermore, meta concept refers to existence and ontology of “being” and forms of it included in Islamic thought in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, etc. languages. Therefore, our study focuses on the Kindî’s terminology as a first sample. In this respect, his terminology constitutes the basic principle and beginning of Islamic thought. In the philosophy of Kindî, meta-varlık exists as six terms: thing (şey), right and reality (hak), existence and humanistic knowledge (wujûd), being (ays, anniyya), existent and copula in a sentence (mawjûd) and appears as a one-many philosophy from the principle of One (vâhid) concept. One is not a number in Kindî’s thought. One is not many. One is not soul (nafs). The number starts with two. Two is multiple. One is a truth (al-Hakk). While One expresses Reality (el-Hak), Unity exists as the reality of things and Kindî expresses them as universals. Therefore, being has unity and plurality. In this form, the Kindî metaphysics constitutes the “beyond” and an “example” of our Being (Varlık) concept in Turkish and also the beginning of Islamic metaphysics.