Averroes' Tahafut Al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) Volumes I and II

633 Pages·1987·27.8 MB·English

"E. J. W. GIBB MEMORIAL"
NEW SERIES XIX
AVERROES'
TAHAFUT AL-TAHAFUT
(The Incoherence of the Incoherence)
TRANSLATED FROM THE ARABIC
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
SIMON VAN DEN BERGH
VOLUMES I AND II
PUBLISHED AND
DISTRIBUTED BY
THE TRUSTEES OF THE
"E. J. W. GIBB MEMORIAL"
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form, by mimeograph
or any other means without permission in
writing from the publishers.
© EJW Gibb Memorial Trust 1954
Reprinted 1969
Reprinted as one volume 1978 and 1987
ISBN o 906094 04 6
Produced in association with
Book Production Consultants, Cambridge, England
Reprinted at the University Press, Cambridge
THIS VOLUME
IS ONE OF A SERIES
PUBLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES OF
THE "E. J. W. GIBB MEMORIAL"
The funds of this Memorial are derived from the Interest accruing
from a Sum of money given by the late MRS GIBB of Glasgow, to
perpetuate the Memory of her beloved Son
ELIAS JOHN WILKINSON GIBB
and to promote those researches into the History, Literature, Philosophy
and Religion of the Turks, Persians and Arabs, to which, from his
Youth upwards, until his premature and deeply lamented Death in his
forty-fifth year, on December 5, 1901, his life was devoted.
" These are our works, these works our souls display;
Behold our works when we have passed away."
CLERK OF THE TRUST
P. R. Bligh, F.C.A.
c/o Spicer and Oppenheim
Leda House, Station Road
Cambridge, England
A catalogue of other publications by the Truat
will be sent upon request.
VOLUME I
PREFACE
I wish to express my warmest thanks to the Trustees of the
Gibb Memorial Fund for making the publication of this
work possible, and especially to Professor Sir Hamilton
Gibb, who asked me to undertake the work and who has not
only read the proofs but has continually given me his interest
and encouragement. I am also deeply indebted to Dr. R.
Walzer, who has read the proofs, carefully checked the
references in my notes, and composed the indexes and the
Greek-Arabic and Arabic-Greek vocabularies. I have also
to thank Dr. S. M. Stern for his help in completing the
subject-index. Finally, I wish to pay a tribute to one who
is no longer amongst us, Father Maurice Bouyges, with
out whose admirable text the work could never have
been undertaken.
The marginal numbers in Vol. I refer to the text of
Father Bouyges's edition of the Tahafut al Tahafut
in his Bibliolheca Arabica Scholasticorum, vol. iii,
Beyrouth, 1930.
The asterisks indicate different readings from those
to be found in Bouyges's text: cf. the Appendix,
Vol. I, pp. 364 ff.
CONTENTS
(VOLUME i)
INTRODUCTION p# *
a
TRANSLATION
THE FIRST DISCUSSION I
Concerning the Eternity of the World
THE FIRST PROOF I
THE SECOND PROOF 37
THE THIRD PROOF 57
THE FOURTH PROOF 58
THE SECOND DISCUSSION 69
The Refutation of their Theory of the Incorruptibility of the World and of Tint and
Motion
THE THIRD DISCUSSION 87
The demonstration of their confusion in saying that God is the agent and ttu maker of
the world and that the world in His product and act, and the demonstration that these
expressions are in their system only metaphors without any real sense
THE FOURTH DISCUSSION i6
5
Showing that they are unable to prove the existence of a creator of the world
THE FIFTH DISCUSSION io
7
To show their incapacity to prove God's unity and the impossibility of two necessary
existents both without a cause
THE SIXTH DISCUSSION 186
To refute their denial of attributes
THE SEVENTH DISCUSSION 221
To refute their claim that nothing can share with the First its genus, andbe differentiated
from it through a specific difference, and that with respect to its intellect the division into
genus and specific difference cannot be applied to it
THE EIGHTH DISCUSSION 235
To refute their theory that the existence of the First is simple, namely that it is pure
existence and that its existence stands in relation to no quiddity and to no essence, but
stands to necessary existence as do other beings to tfieir quiddity
THE NINTH DISCUSSION 241
To refute their proof that the First is incorporeal
viii CONTENTS
THE TENTH DISCUSSION 250
To prove their incapacity to demonstrate that the world has a creator and a COUStt and
that in fact they are forced h admit atheism
THE ELEVENTH DISCUSSION 255
To show the incapacity of those philosophers who believe that th* First know othtr
things besides its own self and that it knows the genera and thi Sficies in a Wwtrsai
way, to prove that this is so
THE TWELFTH DISCUSSION rW«.)>i&ti a69
About the impotence of the philosophers to prove that God knows Himself
THE THIRTEENTH DISCUSSION 275
To refute those who affirm that God is ignorant of the individual things which are
divided in time into present, past, and future
THE FOURTEENTH DISCUSSION 285
To refute their proof that heaven is an animal moving in a circle in obedience to God
THE FIFTEENTH DISCUSSION 293
To refute the theory of the philosophers about the aim which moves heaven
THE SIXTEENTH DISCUSSION 300
To refute the philosophical theory that the souls of the heavens observe all the particular
events of this world
ABOUT THE NATURAL SCIENCES 311
THE FIRST DISCUSSION 316
The denial of a logical necessity between cause and effect
THE SECOND DISCUSSION 333
The impotence of the philosophers to show by demonstra
tive proof that the soul is a spiritual substance
THE THIRD DISCUSSION 356
Refutation of the philosophers* proof for the immortality
of the soul
THE FOURTH DISCUSSION 359
Concerning the philosophers' denial of bodily resurrection
APPENDIX: Changes proposed in the Arabic Text 365
INDEX of Proper Names 374
(VOLUME 11)
NOTES 1
Index of Proper Names mentioned in the Introduction and in the Notes 207
Index of Subjects mentioned in the Notes 211
Some contradictions in Aristotle's System 215
Arabic-Greek Index to the Notes " 2 16
Greek-Arabic Index to the Notes 218
INTRODUCTION
IP it may be said that Santa Maria sopra Minerva is a symbol of
our European culture, it should not be forgotten that the mosque
also was built on the Greek temple. But whereas in Christian
Western theology there was a gradual and indirect infiltration of
Greek, and especially Aristotelian ideas, so that it may be said that
finally Thomas Aquinas baptized Aristotle, the impact on Islam was
sudden, violent, and short. The great conquests by the Arabs took
place in the seventh century when the Arabs first came into contact
with the Hellenistic world. At that time Hellenistic culture was still
alive; Alexandria in Egypt, certain towns in Syria—Edcssa for
instance—were centres of Hellenistic learning, and in the cloisters of
Syria and Mesopotamia not only Theology was studied but Science
and Philosophy also were cultivated. In Philosophy Aristotle was still
'the master of those who know', and especially his logical works as
interpreted by the Neoplatonic commentators were studied inten
sively. But also many Neoplatonic and Ncopythagorean writings
were still known, and also, very probably, some of the old Stoic
concepts and problems were still alive and discussed.
The great period of translation of Greek into Arabic, mostly
through the intermediary of Christian Syrians, was between the
years 750 and 850, but already before that time there was an impact
of Greek ideas on Muhammadan theology. The first speculative
theologians in Islam arc called Mu'tazilites (from about A.D. 723),
an exact translation of the Greek word axirj/iariKot (the general
name for speculative theologians is Mutakallimun, 5(OA»CTIKOI,
dialecticians, a name often given in later Greek philosophy to the
Stoics). Although they form rather a heterogeneous group of thinkers
whose theories are syncretistic, that is taken from different Greek
sources with a preponderance of Stoic ideas, they have certain points
in common, principally their theory, taken from the Stoics, of the
rationality of religion (which is for them identical with Islam), of a
lumen naturale which burns in the heart of every man, and the opti
mistic view of a rational God who has created the best of all
possible worlds for the greatest good of man who occupies the central
place in the universe. They touch upon certain difficult problems
that were perceived by the Greeks. The paradoxes of Zeno concern
ing movement and the infinite divisibility of space and time hold