"Avicenna was one of the greatest philosophers of medieval Islam and author of the medical compendium that reigned as the definitive systematization of Galen in both the Islamic world and Europe for more than half a millennium. . . . Avicenna is one of those rare works that one welcomes not only for its competence and accessibility but also for its formidable learning and refreshing new insights. . . . That its readership will include not only colleagues in the field of Islamic philosophy but also Islamists generally and researchers studying other cultural traditions is a tribute in which the author should take some satisfaction."—ISIS
"Anyone who is at all familiar with the writings of the medieval Islamic philosopher Avicenna recognizes him as a philosophically penetrating and original thinker who deserves a place alongside the more familiar major figures in the history of Western philosophy. . . . This book presents the reader with an overview of the principal tenets of Avicenna’s philosophy that both sets them in their own historical context within medieval Islam and brings them to bear on perennial themes in the history of western philosophy."—Journal of the History of Philosophy

In this updated edition of his classic work, Lenn E. Goodman provides a concise introduction to the life and thought of Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina, known as Avicenna, who was born in the year 980 C.E. near Bokhara in what is now Uzbekistan and died 1037 C.E. in Hamadan, now in Iran.