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The Incoherence of the Philosophers

Al-Ghazali

Islamic theology / philosophy critique

It is the pivotal text where Islamic theology checks philosophy's ambitions, defining the boundary between revealed authority and rational inquiry.

Synopsis

A theologian's assault on the philosophers, charging that their claims about God, the world, and causation are unproven and in places outright unbelief.

Core passage idea

Paraphrase · Public domain

What we call cause and effect is only God's habitual ordering of events, not a necessary connection the philosophers can prove by reason alone.

By denying necessary causation it limits the reach of human reason and reasserts the absolute freedom and sovereignty of God over the world.

To avoid a bubble

Pair with Averroes, The Incoherence of the Incoherence.

Reading note

Notice he writes partly as a master of philosophy turning its own tools against it, so the critique is internal, not naive.

Best paired with

Averroes, The Incoherence of the Incoherence

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