Abstract:

Living in the Middle Ages, Ibn Sînâ was a philosopher who gave many valuable works throughout his life, and has been very influencial in the Eastern and Western parts of the world throughout centuries. Like in every field of philosophy, he also molded a systematic theory in epistemology, and thus presented a unique and way-out epistemic understanding. As for René Descartes, he was a philosopher of the New Age, representing a quintessential shift in the history of European philosophy; hence was regarded as one of the salient figures of Modern philosophy. Like Avicenna, he gave special place and weight to epistemology in his works. In this article, the epistemological understandings of Ibn Sina and Descartes, both of who were the corner stones of the history of philosophy, will be examined in details. In the first part of the study, general approaches of the two philosophers to epistemology has been made subject matter; in the latter part, their respective epistemological theories have been presented; and in the last section, a general comparison and evaluation has been carried out

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