The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.
Meaning of the quote
The quote means that to truly understand something, you need to know why it happened or what made it that way. If you don't know the reasons or causes behind something, your knowledge of it will be incomplete. Everything in the world has a reason or cause for why it is the way it is, so to really understand something, you need to find out those reasons or causes.
About Avicenna
Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina, was a renowned philosopher and physician of the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age. He made significant contributions to fields like medicine, astronomy, and philosophy, and is often called the ‘father of early modern medicine’. His most famous works include the encyclopedic ‘Book of Healing’ and the medical text ‘Canon of Medicine’, which remained a standard in universities for centuries.
More quotes from Avicenna
The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.
Persian polymath, physician and philosopher (c.980-1037)
Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.
Persian polymath, physician and philosopher (c.980-1037)
Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.
Persian polymath, physician and philosopher (c.980-1037)
The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.
Persian polymath, physician and philosopher (c.980-1037)
That whose existence is necessary must necessarily be one essence.
Persian polymath, physician and philosopher (c.980-1037)
As to the mental essence, we find it in infants devoid of every mental form.
Persian polymath, physician and philosopher (c.980-1037)