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3 - Occasionalism in the Middle Period

Ghazālī’s and Rāzī’s Responses to Ibn Sīnā

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2020

Özgür Koca
Affiliation:
Bayan Claremont Islamic Graduate School
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Summary

The third chapter introduces Ghazālī’s and Rāzī’s responses to Ibn Sīnā’s theological and cosmological challenges to the occasionalist worldview. Ghazālī’s response is heavily influenced by Ashʿarite theology’s emphasis on the divine will and freedom. In this discussion, Ghazālī harkens back to the earlier Ashʿarite tradition, offers novel applications of old arguments, and raises important challenges to Ibn Sīnā. Rāzī, on the other hand, formulates a list of arguments for the defense of Ashʿarite cosmology based on a discrete and atomistic model of the universe. Rāzī’s atomistic arguments can be seen as a novel development in the occasionalist tradition. Rāzī’s use of Euclidian geometry for and against atomism also led to emergence of an occasionalist philosophy of science marked by pragmatic and sceptic attitude towards dominant scientific models.

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Chapter
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Islam, Causality, and Freedom
From the Medieval to the Modern Era
, pp. 60 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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