Athena
TR
Text / workRoots1095

Al-Ghazālī's Incoherence of the Philosophers

al-Ghazālī

This page delivers no verdict; it presents claims and evidence with their sources. No theory in science is absolute. Method

For everyone

In this work al-Ghazālī criticised, on twenty issues, the Peripatetic philosophy represented by Ibn Sīnā and al-Fārābī, arguing that the philosophers' views rest on conjecture rather than demonstration. He criticised the philosophers sharply on the eternity of the world, God's not knowing particulars and the denial of bodily resurrection. In the seventeenth discussion he argued that causality is not necessary.

For specialists

Against the eternity of the world, al-Ghazālī argued that time too is created and that a will can select one of two equal alternatives. On causality he said that the conjunction of fire and burning is observed but a necessary connection is not. The work does not reject philosophy wholesale: al-Ghazālī defended logic and paved the way for theologians' greater use of philosophical methods. The claim that the Tahāfut caused the decline of science in the Islamic world is disputed among historians.

Claims

Positions

The decline thesis
Al-Ghazālī's critique of philosophy contributed to the weakening of the rational sciences in the Islamic world.[3]
Critics of the decline thesis
Important work in astronomy, mathematics and medicine continued after al-Ghazālī; he made logic part of the madrasa curriculum.[4][5]

Connections

Parent

Kalām (Islamic theology)

Argues against

Ibn Sīnā and the Book of Healing

Argued against by

Ibn Rushd and The Incoherence of the Incoherence

Related

Ashʿarism and occasionalismFakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and the meeting of kalām and philosophyAl-Ghazālī's Deliverance from Error

This topic is a stop on these journeys

Reason and revelation: a debate in Islamic thought · stop 5/9

Show in tree →

Sources

  1. BookGazzâlî / al-Ghazālī; Marmura, M. E. (trans.) (2000). The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Brigham Young University Press, Provo
  2. EncyclopediaTehâfütü'l-felâsife. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisiislamansiklopedisi.org.trarchive
  3. BookHoodbhoy, P. (1991). Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality. Zed Books, London
  4. BookGriffel, F. (2009). Al-Ghazālī's Philosophical Theology. Oxford University Press
  5. BookSaliba, G. (2007). Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. MIT Press, Cambridge MA

Search the literature

Look for scholarly work on this topic in other indexes:

Google Scholar ↗Semantic Scholar ↗BASE ↗CORE ↗PhilPapers ↗JSTOR ↗DergiPark ↗

Cite this page

APA

Athena contributors. (2026). Al-Ghazālī's Incoherence of the Philosophers. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/gazali-tehafut/

BibTeX
@misc{athena_gazali_tehafut,
  title        = {Al-Ghazālī's Incoherence of the Philosophers},
  author       = {{Athena contributors}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/gazali-tehafut/}},
  note         = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}

Added: September 27, 2026 · Last changed: September 28, 2026 · Page history

✎ Suggest a correction