The Incoherence of the Philosophers

518 Pages·2000·18.35 MB·English

About the Translator
MICHAEL E. MARMURA was born in Jerusalem on
November 11,1929. He received his B.A. in 1953 from
the University of Wisconsin and went on to obtain
both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of
Michigan. He is professor emeritus at the University
of Toronto, where he taught from 1959 until 1995 and
where he twice chaired the Department of Middle
East and Islamic Studies.
Dr. Marmura has published medieval Arabic phi
losophical texts and translations, as well as numerous
articles on Islamic philosophy, many of them devoted
to the thought of Avicenna and al-Ghazali. His publi
cations include an edition of Ibn Sina's Fi ithbat al-
nubuwwdl (Proof of prophecy); Refutation by Alexander
of Aphrodisias of Galen's Treatise on the Theory of Motion,
with N. Reseller; and Islamic Theology and Philosophy:
Studies in Honor of George F. Houratii, of which he was
the editor. He has also published a history of Islamic
philosophy incorporated in Der Islam II: Politische
Entwicklungen und theologische Konzepte, coauthored
with W. Montgomery Watt.
•
ON THE COVER: ' Iyddibn Musd,
Al-Shafaf II huquq al-Mustafa,seventeenth-century
work (detail). Courtesy oj Special Collections,
Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.
Photographed by David Ilawkinson
Jacket design by Jonathan Saltznian
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY PMSI
PROVO, UTAH
THE INCOHERENCE
OF THE PHILOSOPHERS
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Parviz Morewedge
Binghamton University
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Daniel C. Peterson
Brigham Young University
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Glen M. Cooper, D. Morgan Davis
Muhammad Eissa, Elizabeth W. Watkins
ADVISORY BOARD
Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas Michael E. Marmura
Jalal Badakhchani Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Charles E. Butterworth Ismail K. Poonawala
William C. Chittick Nasrollah Pourjavady
Farhad Daftary Anthony Preus
Majid F. Fakhry John Walbridge
Hermann Landolt Hossein Ziai
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
Kyle Hettinger, Jeff Larson
Nathan Toronto, Steven Whiting
COSPONSORS
Institute of Global Cultural Studies
Binghamton University, State University of New York
Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts
Brigham Young University
Al-Ghazali
The Incoherence
of the Philosophers
A parallel English-Arabic text
translated, introduced, and annotated by
Michael E. Marmura
Brigham Young University Press • Provo, Utah * 2000
©1997, 2000 by Brigham Young University Press. All rights reserved.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Ghazzali, 1058-1111.
[Tahafut al-falasifah. English]
The incoherence of the philosophers = Tahafut al-falasifah:
a parallel English-Arabic text I translated, introduced, and annotated
by Michael E. Marmura. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.— (Islamic translation series)
1. Philosophy—Early works to 1800. 2. Methodology—Early works to 1800.
3. Faith and reason—Islam—Early works to 1800. 4. Islam—Doctrines.
I. Marmura, Michael E., 1929- . II. Title. III. Series.
B753.G33T3313 2000
297.2'61^-dc21 97-21195
CIP
ISBN 0-8425-2466-5
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Second Edition
To my brother Aziz
—M. Marmura
Contents
Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Translator's Introduction—English xv
Translator's Introduction—Arabic xxix
'Author's Introduction: [The religious preface] 1
[A first] introduction 4
[A second] introduction . 5
;
[A third] introduction 7
[A fourth] introduction 8
[Author's table of contents] 10
[Part One]
[First] Discussion: On refuting their doctrine of the world's past eternity 12
The [philosophers'] first [proof] 13
[The philosophers'] second proof . . 30
[The philosophers'] third proof ... 39
[The philosophers'] fourth proof 40
[Second] Discussion: On refuting their statement on the 47
post-eternity of the world, time, and motion '; ', ' : :
vm Contents
[Third] Discussion: On showing their obfuscation in saying 55
that God is the world's enactor and maker . . .
Regarding the first [aspect] 56
The second aspect 60
The third aspect 64
[Fourth] Discussion: On showing their inability 78
to prove the existence of the Maker of the world
[Fifth] Discussion: On showing their inability to prove 84
that God is one . . .
[Sixth] Discussion: [On the divine attributes] 96
[Seventh] Discussion: On refuting their statement that 110
the First cannot share with another in terms of genus . . .
[Eighth] Discussion: On refuting their statement that the 116
existence of the First is simple . . .
[Ninth] Discussion: On showing their inability to sustain 119
a proof that the First is not a body
[Tenth] Discussion: On their inability to show that the world 123
has a maker and a cause
[Eleventh] Discussion: On showing the impotence of those 125
among them who perceive that the First knows other[s] and knows
the genera and species in a universal way
[Twelfth] Discussion: On showing their inability to prove 13|
that He also knows Himself
[Thirteenth] Discussion: On refuting their statement that 134
God. . . does not know the particulars divisible in terms of temporal
division into what is, what was, and what will be
[Fourteenth] Discussion: On their inability to set a proof 144
[to show] that heaven is an animal that obeys God. . . through
its circular motion
Contents
[Fifteenth] Discussion: On refuting what they mentioned
concerning the purpose that moves heaven j,
[Sixteenth] Discussion: On refuting their statement that the
of the heavens know all the particulars that occur in this world
[Part Two: The Natural Sciences]
[Introduction]
[Seventeenth] Discussion: [On causality and miracles]
[Eighteenth] Discussion: On their inability to sustain
a rational demonstration [proving] that the human soul is a
selfsubsistent spiritual substance . . .
The first [proof]
A second proof
A third proof
A fourth proof
A fifth proof
A sixth proof
A seventh proof
An eighth proof
A ninth proof
A tenth proof
[Nineteenth] Discussion: On refuting their statement
that it is impossible for human souls to undergo annihilation . .
[Twentieth] Discussion: On refuting their denial of
bodily resurrection . . .
The Book's Conclusion
• • •
Notes to the English Text
Notes to the Arabic Text
Index