Discussion of Causality Based on the Conceptions of Nature of Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazālī

Year 2010, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 241 - 258, 07.08.2011

Mehmet Fatih Birgül

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2010.12.16

Abstract

In this short analysis, we will compare Ibn Rushd’s justification of the causality principle to the suspicions and objections of al-Ghazālī. Nevertheless, our analysis of the issue will center on al-Ghazālī’s and Ibn Rushd’s conceptions of nature. Therefore, our article aims at illuminating two points: first, there is a fundamental difference between the conceptions of nature and generation of the two philosophers; second, this structural difference constitutes the real cause of disagreement over the causality principle.

Keywords

Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazālī, causality, nature, determinism, generation., Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazālī, causality, nature, determinism, generation

References

• Al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad, al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl (eds. Jamīl Ṣalībā and Kāmil ʿAyyād; 7th ed., Beirut: Dār al-Andalus, 1967).
• Al-Ghazālī, Deliverance from Error and Attachment to The Lord of Might and Majesty [al-Munqidh min al-ḍalāl], in W. Montgomery Watt (trans.), The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazālī (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1953), 19-85.
• Al-Ghazālī, The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahāfut al-falāsifa) (A parallel English-Arabic text translated, introduced and annotated by Michael E. Marmura; 2nd ed., Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2000).
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