Avicenna’s distinction between external existence and mental existence is seminal to logic and philosophy in the Islamic tradition. This article examines philosophers who depart from Avicenna’s external-mental existence framework. They view the former as failing to support a general analysis of reality and truth, as mental existence is neither necessary nor sufficient for analyzing propositional truths, i.e., true propositions are true irrespective of “the very existence of minds” and “the perceptual acts of perceivers.” They propose that Avicenna’s semantics for categorical propositions needs revision, as there are true metathetic and hypothetical propositions, i.e., subject terms need not exist – in external reality or in a mind – for such propositions to be true. This counter-Avicennan current of thought articulates a third distinction in the analysis of reality, which focuses on the mind-independent nature of propositional content – particularly propositions with empty, hypothetical, or impossible subject terms – as a way to think generally about reality, in contrast to the Avicennan emphasis on the existential status of terms and essences. Notably, the analysis of mind-independent reality is supported by a novel semantics of “real” (ḥaqīqī) categorical propositions, which avoids external and mental existence conditions.

Nous entendons dans cet article éditer, traduire et analyser un texte datant du xiiie siècle dans lequel figurent des preuves arithmétiques de la proposition selon laquelle la somme des carrés de deux nombres impairs ne peut pas être un carré. Cette proposition avait déjà été démontrée par al-Ḫāzin au xe siècle par le biais des propositions 3 et 5 du livre II et de la proposition 22 du livre IX des Éléments d’Euclide.

Avicenna is well-known for rejecting Aristotle’s dichotomy between perception and the intellect by introducing the so-called estimative power, which connects perception and the intellect. The estimative power is similar to sensory cognition because what is estimated is always mixed with the sensibles. Additionally, the proper object of estimation is the individualised macnā, which seems similar to the object of the intellect as the intelligible macnā. Given the special role of estimation, scholars have recently begun debating whether Avicenna has a conceptualist theory of perception. This article contributes to that debate by focusing on Avicenna’s discussions about the perception of externals in Al-taclīqāt. I argue for a reading that steers between Mohammad Azadpur’s conceptualist reading and Luis Farjeat’s anti-conceptualist reading. For Avicenna, the presence of the sensible form in a sensory power is non-conceptual, but the perceptual judgement exhibits a weak epistemic conceptualism.

This study tries to shed further light on Avicenna’s (d. 1037) philosophical and linguistic innovations as suggested in his various accounts of the problem of individuation. To better contextualize his discussions, a background is given from both Porphyry’s (d. 305) Isagoge and Fārābī’s (d. 950) remarks in his Isāġūǧī. I have also enumerated all the candidates for the principle of individuation in Avicenna’s œuvre. It is argued in this paper that the pre-Avicennian Peripatetic tradition hardly engaged, both epistemologically and ontologically, with individual per se as having its own unique identity. Instead, individual was ontologically treated as instantiation of universals and epistemologically it was inquired about to the extent that it could be only told apart. Introducing the notion of individuation as tašaḫḫuṣ, instead of the traditional individuation as tamayyuz, Avicenna offers a new way of looking at intra-species differences for a more complex understanding of the individual per se. According to this view, individual with its unique šaḫṣiyya must be understood on its own through sense perception. This approach appears to propose that the individual should not be deemed as subordinate to Aristotelian universals whose assemblage, in Peripatetic thought, was vainly expected to lead to the knowledge and definition of the individual.

This article examines the processes involved in materializing the past. The recording of archaeological objects plays a pivotal role in establishing artefacts as valuable data that can be categorized, classified, and analysed to turn into historical narratives. It contributes significantly to shaping our understanding of the past: while conveying information about the objects themselves, this documentation inherently captures the subjective context of its recording and continues to influence our interpretations. In this article, both objective details and subjective conceptions are analysed from the records (drawings, photographs, reports) made at the rock figure of Karabel (Turkey), a monumental bas-relief discovered by European explorers in the 1830s. The author uses Karabel's diverse and controversial interpretations to examine how knowledge and ideas about the past evolve. To counterbalance the conventional linear interpretation of the past, he offers some insights into non-academic aspects of the monument.

Following a time in which dating through the radiocarbon method seemed to take a back seat, recent decades have seen an uptake again. This is due to new technologies used in sample analysis and the new-found ability to combine radiocarbon data with archaeological information via Bayesian statistics, a method devised and developed largely by experts from the United Kingdom. This methodology is now used by most researchers with the purpose of establishing a thorough chronology in archaeology (Bayliss 2015: 677–80).

This study uses stable and radiogenic isotopic data from Chalcolithic (c. 3000–1900 bc) humans and animals recovered from the Rego da Murta dolmens (Alvaiázere, Portugal) to understand dietary and mobility patterns in the populations using these monuments. The results suggest diets based primarily on C3 plants and terrestrial animals, with some possible variation in protein intake by age or status. Analyses of 87Sr/86Sr values identify two individuals out of ten from Rego da Murta I and four individuals out of fifteen from Rego da Murta II as migrants. These data were compared to other Chalcolithic burials in south-western Portugal: while diets were found to be similar across the region, the very high 87Sr/86Sr values recorded for two migrant humans match no known settlement in the broader region. A recent mapping study of 87Sr/86Sr values in Portugal suggests their origins may lie to the north/north-east of the dolmens.

The dominance of economics in shaping the modern world has encouraged scholars from diverse intellectual backgrounds to explore and interpret the evidence for exchange, merchants and markets in the distant past. Urban, state and pan-continental trade systems and networks were developed and in use for thousands of years before the emergence of coins in the early first millennium BC in Anatolia, India and China. In the absence of coins, there is at least some reassuring evidence—especially for historians and economists—when written records detailing goods and transactions are discovered and translated. However, while these sources are invaluable, the majority of the early trade and exchange between individuals and groups across the world is visible only in the archaeological record. The sheer scale, complexity and distances revealed, even for some small village-based agricultural groups, highlights that there was widespread co-operation, but also raises the question of how such exchanges could have occurred. It is in this space that the frequently neglected—and sometimes maligned—study of early metrological systems and weight use can be best appreciated.

This article explores the cremation burial practices of a pre-Tarascan community at Los Tamarindos, focusing on the perceptions of the bodies of those cremated. To reconstruct this element of mortuary practices in the Middle Balsas River basin during the Postclassic period, we analyzed the thermal alterations, anatomical arrangements, and spatial distribution of cremains within funerary urns. Our findings shed light on the low efficiency of cremation processes, which affect the resistance of cremains to mechanical damage and influences the spatial distribution of cremains in the burials. As a result, we were able to register only one case of an intentional distribution of human remains within a funerary urn: skull fragments were dominant in the upper part of the funerary vessel, with a gradual reduction in favor of the lower limb fragments toward the bottom. We also explored the potential presence of intentional manipulation of human remains in the majority of adult burials, offering new perspectives on cremation mortuary rites during the Middle and Late Postclassic period in the Middle Balsas region.

Presentamos avances en la exploración del abrigo rocoso Las Columnas situado en la Depresión Central de Chiapas, México. Un fechamiento obtenido por espectrometría de masas con aceleradores (AMS) muestra indicios de actividades humanas entre el 790 aC y 517 aC, período que corresponde con el desarrollo de sistemas políticos complejos mesoamericanos. Las excavaciones arrojaron también restos de talla, alisadores de piedra, caracoles, semillas y cerámica que indican actividades humanas recurrentes. Una muestra de artefactos líticos se analizó con microscopía para determinar su función. Los resultados preliminares indican que el abrigo Las Columnas fue utilizado para actividades domésticas y el procesamiento de huesos y pieles durante el Preclásico medio.

Intermediate levels of social organization—above the household but below the entire settlement, city, or polity—are notoriously difficult to pinpoint in archaeological contexts, but they nevertheless represent a crucial frontier for building new archaeological theory to understand daily social life in the past. Ethnographic research demonstrates that informants recognize units such as the “neighborhood” and consider them important. In Mesoamerica, organizational units such as the Mixtec siqui, Aztec calpulli, and Maya cuchcabal were often formally recognized in social, military, and economic systems. Here, a neighborhood case study is presented from San Pedro Teozacoalco in Oaxaca, Mexico. The site known as Iglesia Gentil, which is located atop a mountain today called Cerro Amole, was the cabecera, or administrative center, of Chiyo Cahnu, an important Postclassic Mixtec polity. Using distributions of architecture and artifacts across the site based on data collected with GPS units from 2013 to 2017, three complementary GIS-based models are evaluated for their ability to define neighborhoods at Iglesia Gentil. The best is based on least cost paths modified by Tobler's hiking function.