The Incoherence of the Philosophers: A Parallel English-Arabic Text
Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1997. First edition. Leatherette. 260 pp. Green leatherette in a green leatherette slipcase. Front cover of slipcase - Islamic Translation Series - Al-Hikma.
Written by al-Ghazali (1058–1111), The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa) has long been recognized as a classic of Islamic thought. In it, al-Ghazali launches a vigorous attack against twenty philosophical doctrines that he sees as threatening to the Islamic faith. These doctrines include metaphysical claims about the nature and attributes of God, the nature of the world, and the possibility of miracles as well as epistemological assertions about which of these doctrines can and cannot be rationally demonstrated.
Al-Ghazali condemns seventeen of these twenty doctrines as “heretical innovations” (xx) and the remaining three as being in total opposition to Islamic belief. These three are the doctrines that the world is eternal and hence needs no creator; that God does not know particulars but only their universal characteristics—and hence does not know us as individual persons; and that bodily resurrection is impossible. While refuting rational arguments both for and against revealed doctrines, he affirms that such doctrines must be accepted on faith. For al-Ghazali, The Incoherence is more than a speculative discussion of timeless theological questions and philosophical theories; it is a defense and preservation of his religion and a voice of warning to those who have been misled by reliance on (and sometimes misunderstanding of) these philosophical doctrines.
The Incoherence of the Philosophers is highly structured. This translation consists of six introductions—five by al-Ghazali and one by the translator, Michael E. Marmura—twenty philosophical exchanges, and a conclusion. Each exchange contains one or more philosophical proofs followed by al-Ghazali’s refutation of the proofs. Al-Ghazali supplements this exchange with a discussion of the philosophers’ anticipated rejoinders followed again by his reply. This method was motivated by al-Ghazali’s belief that he must first summarize and explain the philosophers’ arguments for his readers before he could successfully refute those arguments. Marmura comments that al-Ghazali “explained them so clearly and so well that he rendered philosophical ideas accessible to nonphilosophers” and thus, ironically, made philosophy more popular (xv). Because each exchange builds upon the others without the prior proofs being re-explained, the reader cannot pick and choose which discussions to read but is forced to begin with the first discussion and continue reading straight through the book.
Marmura’s translation of The Incoherence includes a brief biographical sketch, which places the text within the context of al-Ghazali’s life and other works and clarifies his purposes for this text. Other features of this translation include annotations, explanatory notes, the Arabic text and the translated text on facing pages, and numbered lines and paragraphs. To enhance the flow and clarity of the translation, Marmura adds words and phrases that are implied by, but do not appear in, the original text. These additions are bracketed to enable the reader to distinguish what comes directly from the original text and what does not. Condition: Fine. Item #40290
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