Metaphysical Investigations

This study adopts a descriptive–analytical approach, drawing on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of conceptual metaphors, to explore the cognitive function of the schema of “friendship” in explaining the dual governance of the soul in Avicenna’s allegorical treatises, especially The Treatise of the Birds and Hayy ibn Yaqzan. The central problem is to understand how “friendship,” as a conceptual metaphor, structures the soul’s relations with its faculties and hierarchies as well as with higher principles, granting them new ethical and psychological meanings.
The findings indicate three levels of representation. At the lower level, in the relation between the soul and the body with its sensory powers, friendship takes an instrumental form marked by one-sided utility, contingent attachment, and external causation. At the intermediate level, in the relation between the soul and the inner perceptive faculties, friendship is mutual and benefit-oriented, based on reciprocal exchange, leading to the organization of the faculties for the soul and purposeful orientation for the faculties themselves, with direct decision-making by the soul. At the highest level, in the soul’s connection with the Active Intellect, friendship becomes virtue-centered and contemplative, intrinsic and unifying, involving participation in the “sacred order” and detachment from lower forms of friendship.
By uncovering the hierarchical cognitive mechanism of friendship, this research offers a new perspective on the psychological complexities of the soul’s journey in Avicenna’s thought, highlighting the central role of friendship as an organizing principle.

Keywords: Conceptual Metaphors, Friendship, the Soul, Avicenna’s Allegories, Dual Management of the Soul

     

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