Aristotle’s Argument against Essential Movement and the Avicenna and Averroes’s Views on It

Aristotle tried to reject the self-mover by indirect argument, so he postulated a physical entity that has a prime and self-movement. Then he reminded that there are parts in every moving body and imagined that if a part in the self-mover body stops, consequently, the whole will stop. The argument was criticized and some Aristotle’s commentators, including Avicenna and Averroes, tried to defend it by reconstructing it through correcting its mistakes and removing its deficiencies. Avicenna initially tried to reconstruct the idea, but after criticizing it, he didn’t insist on its unconditional acceptance. On the other hand, Averroes not only didn’t reject the notion of self-movement, but through applying it to the first-mover, offered a new theory.