Abstract
Al- Ghazali's concept of the human is subjected to a re-reading in line with his epistemology in this article. The essential attribute of the human is the mind in Al-Ghazali. But he doesn't see the mind sufficient for the right information. This attitude of Al-Ghazali towards the mind opens the query of how consistent he is. If it could be clarified how he makes sense of human and mind, it will be more possible to talk about whether the understanding of reason is consistent or not.
When Al-Ghazali’s epistemology is inquired it is seen that the act of knowing starts with the experience. He also compares the mind to a mirror. Al-Ghazali's comparing the mind to a mirror explains both how the information is possible and why the human mistake. The mirror allows us to see the outside with its power of reflectivity. But the information of the human is dependant the mirror. That is, the human could see in proportion to the reflecting power of the mirror. İf the mind is mirror, understanding and perception of human works under the influence of experience. Thus, the human can't have the information directly and purely. The human always faces the probability of a mistake, because the human act of knowing works in this structure. However, it’s seen also Al-Ghazali does not use the mind in a single means in his works. The mind, that is the 'consciousness’, expressing the thinking process of man contains the human and animal soul. The mind leading people to the right information and distinguishing he/she from the other beings truly is the 'human soul' alone. In that case, Al-Ghazali sometimes indicates the parts of the whole, not always the whole with the concept of mind. The human soul could be expressed also as 'pure mind' whereby being the substance of the human. But the substance is an attribute of the created and ıt’s mean and important originates to explain the existence. As the substance isn’t the essence of existence, ıt affects Al-Ghazali’s way of evaluating humans. Al-Ghazali does not evaluate the human independently of his/her accidents and the body. Even İf the human separates from the animal with the mind, it is the feature such as spirit and body, which are common with animals. They are among the qualities that surround the human. If these qualities cannot be separated from his/ her as long as a person lives, the human is a mistaken being as much as is a rational being.