Ibn-Rushd (Averroes). The Incoherence of the Incoherence. Part One

Abstract

The book “The Incoherence of the Incoherence” (Tahafut at-Tahafut) by a peripatetic philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 1198) is written in response to the work of the theologian-asharite al-Ghazali (d. 1111) “The Incoherence of the Philosophers” (Tahafut al-Falasifa), in which he criticizes Muslim philosophical school Falsafa, mainly represented by al-Farabi (d. 950) and especially by Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1037). This series of publications presents a translation of the chapters dedicated to three theses attributed to Falsafa and qualified by al-Ghazali as “heretical” (kufr), which are about the eternity of the world, about the mere universal character of God’s knowledge of individual things and about the impossibility of body resurrection. This part includes Ibn Rushd’s answer to the first of two objections raised by al-Ghazali to the main proof for the pre-eternity of God’s creation - “from complete cause”. Parrying this objection, Ibn Rushd also examines the arguments of his opponents in favour of temporal creationism.