Love and Moderation
A Comparative Study of the Philosophies of Love in
Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and Ibn Hazm
This study undertakes a comparative examination of the conceptions of
love in Ibn Sînâ and Ibn Hazm, aiming to explore its metaphysical, cosmic,
and human dimensions. Ibn Sînâ’s doctrine of emanation (sudūr),
which treats love as a cosmic reality and the ground of existence, together
with Ibn Hazm’s account of human love as an affect that must
be lived within moral bounds, constitute the study’s principal points of
departure. The purpose is to analyze the causes of violence and hedonic
excess that emerge when love departs from equilibrium and to outline
a philosophical framework for bringing such excesses under control.
In this light, the project seeks to develop-on the basis of Ibn Sînâ’s and
Ibn Hazm’s accounts of love- a proposal addressing the problems of individual
and social violence in modern society. Considered through the
lens of iʿtidāl (moderation), both thinkers emphasize the guiding role of
divine love on the cosmic and human planes. Each associates excess in
love with a turn toward bodily desires and a distancing from the divine.
Ibn Sînâ’s metaphysical approach, which defines love as a cosmic power
directing one toward divine truth and grounding the order of being,
and Ibn Hazm’s descriptive approach, which construes human love as
an affect to be lived within moral moderation and limits, together offer
a way to purge love in modern contexts of violence and hedonic
excess. This solution requires disciplining the emotions on the basis of
rational intellect and moral virtue and living love in a state of balance.
Accordingly, the thesis argues that love, in the human soul, is a quest
for equilibrium, and that moderation can serve as a guarantor not only
of individual tranquility but also of social peace. Drawing on the approaches
of Ibn Sînâ and Ibn Hazm, it recommends for contemporary
society a perspective grounded in rational intellect and moral balance
to govern the excesses of violence and pleasure connected with love.
Keywords: Love; Moderation; Intellect; Violence; Ascetic Discipline;
Ibn Hazm; Avicenna