This is made in philosophy bites with me David Edmonds and me Nigel Warburton.

Philosophy bites is available at www

philosophy bites.com.

Philosophy bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.

He may be the most significant philosopher you've never heard of.

The Persian thinker Avicenna, born over a millennium ago, has already been the focus of one philosophy bite.

But according to one of his most articulate advocates, Peter Adamson, he's certainly worthy

of another.

Here Professor Adamson discusses one of Avicenna's most arresting thought

experiments.

Peter Adamson, welcome to Philosophy Bites.

Hi, it's good to be back.

The topic we're going to focus on this time is Avicenna's Flying Man.

So what is the Flying Man thought experiment?

Right. Well, it's also called sometimes the floating man argument or even the falling man argument.

The idea is that God creates a fully grown mature human being in thin air and also out of thin air.

So he's just started to exist. He has no memory of previous existence.

And in addition to having no memory, he crucially has no sensory input.

So he's blindfolded or veiled and there's nothing for him to hear, there's

no wind, he's not even touching the ground because he's in midair and his limbs are

spayed out so that he's not in contact with his own body and there's no smell and he's not eating anything.

All five senses are completely disabled as it were because there's nothing for him to experience.

...