With the famous thought experiment of the flying man, Avicenna not only bequeathed to posterity a foreshadowing of the Cartesian cogito; he also sketched a theory of the subject which, although it is rooted in biology and psychology and ties together elements belonging to metaphysics, cosmology, religious revelation and politics, points toward our philosophical modernity.
With: Souad Ayada, agrégée in philosophy, doctor and inspectrice générale de l'éducation nationale. President of the Conseil supérieur des programmes from 2017 to 2022, she worked to introduce Avicenna into the list of authors in the philosophy curriculum for the final years of secondary school. She foreshadowed and directed the Institut français d'islamologie. She is notably the author of Avicenne (2002) and of L'Islam des théophanies. Une religion à l'épreuve de l'art (2010).