Al-Ghazali - The Bane of the Philosophers

[Music] Renee Descartes iconic quote I think therefore I am argued that if one was able to doubt their own existence by necessity they must firstly exist his method which used doubt as a central tool to prove the existence of a self would shift the Western philosophical landscape and facilitate the Inception of modern philosophy but what if Descartes was beaten to this mode of philosophy much earlier in the 11th century a Persian scholar from tus roamed through the far-reaching lands of the soljuk empire dragging himself through a distressing yet profound existential episode just as it is with Cartesian skepticism he began his Reflections by questioning all of his beliefs destroying and reconstructing the claims of others which at once acted as a source of dynamism or despair for many philosophical movements this version of Doubt would function as the Catalyst for an unprecedented medieval intellectual paradigm firmly attached to this revolution of thought would be the name of the most famous academic of his age the intellectual proof of Islam or the bane of the philosophers was born in 1058 CE into a poor but deeply Pious family from childhood Elizabeth's inquisitiveness and unquenchable thirst for comprehension of reality stood unmatched often being scolded by teachers for asking too many questions and engaging in debate Allah's passion is recalled in a story where as a student he once encountered Highway robbers they searched his bags and robbed him of his possessions he begged that they at least spare his study notes the leader of the bandits laughed in his face and asked young scholar what good can all this knowledge be if it was so easily taken from you later recounted as the best piece of advice the young al-hazali received from then on he never failed to memorize all that he wrote so it couldn't be taken from him indeed Allah blossomed as he studied at the prestigious nizamiya Institute in nishapur ultimately resulting in his teachers being out shown by him but also praising his breath of knowledge as a sea one could drown in Allah's Journey entailed teaching at the greatest Institutes of baghbad under the patronage of the grand Sultan himself his Works would catapult him into Fame as they predated modern board experiments and theories like the trolley problem and ideas about Infinity famously he would stand as both a rational and spiritual icon against a charge brought against religious adherents even today before the age of 20 al-hazali complained of people's passivity and gullibility in accepting the beliefs of Elders with no research or critical thought he witnessed that for Many religious scientific and philosophical beliefs were merely a product of environment and upbringing despite the rationalism in the works of IBN Cena and al-farabi dominating during his working years today it is common to think of religious people as blind followers but those who were most guilty of conformist ideology for al-hazali were actually the philosopher or the neoplatonists of Aristotle even Cena and al-farabi after being praised by the neoplatonists themselves for his grasp on philosophy with the publication of his aims of the philosophersali's repudiation for credulity climaxed in the release of his popular text the incoherence of the philosophers in it he specifically targets three of 18 metaphysical propositions naively taken from the Greek switch for him were permeated in Gross era even by the neoplatonist's own standards has the universe always existed explored earlier in our series rejected the notion that along with God the universe has existed forever this idea espoused by IBN Cena that God did not create the universe in time as it would entail God changing his mind fallaciously making something within God contingent is criticized by Allah as merely an unproven assumption for Allah time and the universe was created by Allah through an eternal decree which means that God essentially always existed without the universe and had the will to bring the universe into being independent of time one way the neoplatonists responded is that this would make God's choice arbitrary why exactly would God delay or bring forward the creation of the universe without an explanation but for al-razali this is exactly what Eternal will is consider a man with the free choice to eat one of two equally succulent and tasty dates if we as humans could do this arbitrarily al-hazali asks what would stop God from making seemingly arbitrary decisions in fact it is arbitrary will in the first place that allows God to be a completely free agent humans on the other hand make choices which seem free but are ultimately determined by external sometimes uncontrollable factors additionally notices a double standard for the philosophers could one not ask why God decided to make the universe with the exact properties it has could he not make it colder or warmer bigger or smaller if arbitrariness is allowed there it is the same with the creation of the universe in time to top it all al-razali argues that the neoplatonists commit themselves to fallacies of infinite regress especially when presenting the universe as Eternal something they wish to avoid in the first place this is an objection that remains popular even today another proposition al-razali attacks Indian coherence is the claim that God is only aware of universals not of particular matters in that time one way of doing metaphysics was to split reality into universals and particulars for instance there is the universal notion of man which entails the non-specific and ideal concept of man and then there are particular instances of men that contain specific qualities like being short tall skinny fat and so on for the neoplatonists God is unaware of particular people in times and places such as you or me but only knows of the universal platonic person which is independent of space and time in this way the neoplatonists protect God's Eternal knowledge by stating that it is not subject to temporal or spatial change like the humans is Ali might have simply stopped at the statement that such ideas contradict clear scriptural verses as any old cleric might yet he demonstrates the limitation in the Philosopher's argument systematically by expressing that change in the nature of knowledge does not necessarily entail change in the essence of the Noah as the philosophers wrongly presume God can have knowledge of particulars and his knowledge could constantly change with his Essence left unscathed in the effort of trying to preserve God's Majesty the neoplatonists strip him of the essential attributes of power and knowledge reducing him to the status of the Dead finally refutes the neoplatonic claim that bodies will not resurrect on the day of judgment an orthodox Muslim belief and that only the human soul persists to which he simply claims they make no conclusive argument for this was a matter of the truth of scripture not one of science since science cannot comment on matters Beyond Death in this way al-razali maintained the healthy epistemic differences between religion and empirical Sciences whilst also demonstrating the inconsistencies of the philosopher logically possible matters of the rape or the Unseen realm were to remain with literal scripture as the authority while other knowledge could validly be scrutinized either empirically or rationally the philosophers wrongfully overestimate their rational and empirical abilities since the scripture clearly affirms the resurrection of the body and the fact that bodily Resurrection is logically possible the philosophers are left with no choice but to accept it at face value and have no reason to reduce scripture to simple allegory it is crucial to note that Allah was not against the general field of philosophy itself rather he considered the instrument of logic to be Paramount to any method of thought and even worried that the impression of certainty derived from a field like maths would deceive careless readers into assuming that all of philosophy was equally as reliable still Allah's Ali approved of the field of philosophical ethics from the Greeks noticing the many overlaps between Islamic and ancient virtue ethics at some point however Allah suffered a psychological intellectual crisis he abandoned his teaching posts left money for his family and became a simple mediator in the mosques of Jerusalem this led to his eventual disillusionment with theoretical philosophy causing him to adopt a certain skepticism a refutation of takleid Even in our everyday experiences here he predated the ideas of Descartes in asking how one could trust their senses when they so often deceive us while intuitive logic might correct our sensory understanding asked whether there could be higher forms of learning even greater than the systems of logic In Case Logic suffered from the same fallibility as our senses it was this line of thinking which informed his 40 volume magnum opus on ethics and practical reason A desperate attempt to revive spirituality and pragmatically Aid the ordinary man in finding contentment that would be a topic for another video some public intellectuals today preach that Allah was the ultra-orthodox religious cleric that declared maths as the work of the devil and burnt down the academic Paradise at the center of the golden age of the Muslim world nothing could be further from the truth philosophy and the Natural Sciences prospered for centuries after al-hazali's death most prominently through his Fierce critic IBN rushed however should be remembered as someone who harmonized rationality and Faith bringing order and guidance to Humanity's search for the Oasis of wisdom he died in 1111 after retiring to his hometown of thus reminding Us in an age of mindless deference to news outlets and pseudo-intellectuals obsessed with fear-mongering and personal profit to just stop and think for ourselves whoever determines truth from the people alone will remain lost in the plains of bewilderment rather know the truth and you will know its people

Channel: Oases of Wisdom

Views: 133,991

Keywords: God, Theology, Philosophy, Oases of Wisdom, Oasis of Wisdom, Islamic Golden Age, Arab Philosophy, History, Medieval Period, Middle Ages, Islamic History, Multicultural, Spirituality, Ethics, Religion, Persia, Persian History, Al-Ghazali, Algazel, Bane of the Philosophers, Persian Philosophy, Rumi, Sufism, Sufi, Incoherence of the Philosophers, Ihya Ulum al-Din, Tahāfut al-Falāsifah, Mujaddid, Hujjat al-Islam, History of Philosophy, Aristotle, Plato, neoplatonism, Rene Descartes

Id: vm5Bw0i4rSM

Length: 12min 53sec (773 seconds)

Published: Sat May 20 2023