Philosophy and Kalam

Philosophy and Kalam

Analytic Study of ‘Connective Word’ in Propositions and Its Meaning in Avicenna’s Ontology

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Javad Azimi Dastgerdi 1
Ali Arshad Riahi 2
1 PhD, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Theology and Ahl-al-Bayt (Prophet’s Descendants) Studies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
2 Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Faculty of Theology and Ahl-al-Bayt (Prophet’s Descendants) Studies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
10.22059/jitp.2026.404287.523658
Abstract
"Copulative existence" is linked to "connective word" in propositions, so much so that even the word "existence" has been used as a connective word by philosophers. In transcendental wisdom, "copulative existence" is meaning of "connective word" in positive and true propositions. This is while in negative propositions, even assuming the lack of a "judgement", the connective word has been discussed. In this article, using the method of content analysis in the works of Avicenna, the connective word and its meaning have been studied and it is resulted that: First, there is no fundamental difference between Avicenna and Mulla Sadra in the meaning of the connective in propositions, and in both views, it implies the relation of the predicate to the subject. This relation (which is a propositional meaning) indicates the Existence of relation Outside. Secondly, there are two issues that distinguish Avicenna: one is that in Avicenna's philosophical system, all existing beings are independent individuals who are related to each other by relations, and the other is that the signified "connective word" has two states, one before assenting and one after, in which second
case it is related and connected to "fact of the matter". Therefore, just as beings, on the basis of relations, with that specific existence they possess, are interconnected and unified in the world, in the mind as well, nominal meanings, by virtue of the specific characteristic of the meanings of these relations (i.e., propositional meaning), particularly "connective words," become a mirror of the world. And through the assent that supervenes upon these relations, they make possible the objectivity (or correspondence) of the mind and the external world.
Keywords
copulative existence
inhering existence
connective word
proposition
Avicenna
Subjects
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Philosophy and Kalam
Volume 59, Issue 1
(Spring & Summer 2026)
September 2026
Pages 75-96