On Averroes’ response to al-Ghazali’s critique of Falsafa interpretation of bodily resurrection

Abstract

This article serves as an introduction to the translation of the section on bodily resurrection, from the book «The Incoherence of the Incoherence» (Tahāfut at-Tahāfut) of the peripatetic philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes, 1126–1198), written in response to the work of the theologian-asharite al-Ghazali (1058–1111) «The Incoherence of the Philosophers» (Tahāfut al-Falāsifa). The paper reveals the presentist-intellectualist intention of Falsafa eschatology; it also gives a compendium of the polemics of two thinkers around two related issues that are the rational proofs for the immateriality of the soul and its incorruptibility. Moreover, the research provides a brief summary of the section of the Ghazalian book regarding resurrection. The authors also disclose the connection between the book of Ibn Rushd and his earlier theological and polemical treatises «On the correlation between philosophy and religion» and «On the methods of proof for the principles of creed».The article is intended to serve as an introduction to the translation of the section on bodily resurrection, which concludes the book of the peripatetic philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes, 1126–1198) «The Inconsistency of Inconsistency», compiled in refutation of the critical treatise «The Inconsistency of the Teachings of the Philosophers» by the mutaqallimah-ash'arite al-Ghazali (1058–1111).