Book contents
- Islam, Causality, and Freedom
- Islam, Causality, and Freedom
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Conventions
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Causality in the Early Period
- 2 Toward a Synthesis of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic Understandings of Causality
- 3 Occasionalism in the Middle Period
- 4 The First as Pure Act and Causality
- 5 Light, Existence, and Causality
- 6 The World as a Theophany and Causality
- 7 Continuities and Developments in Sufi Metaphysics
- 8 Toward an Occasionalist Philosophy of Science
- 9 Causality and Freedom in Later Islamic Philosophy
- 10 Occasionalism in the Modern Context
- 11 Islamic Theories of Causality in the Modern Context
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Occasionalism in the Middle Period
Ghazālī’s and Rāzī’s Responses to Ibn Sīnā
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2020
- Islam, Causality, and Freedom
- Islam, Causality, and Freedom
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Conventions
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Causality in the Early Period
- 2 Toward a Synthesis of Aristotelian and Neoplatonic Understandings of Causality
- 3 Occasionalism in the Middle Period
- 4 The First as Pure Act and Causality
- 5 Light, Existence, and Causality
- 6 The World as a Theophany and Causality
- 7 Continuities and Developments in Sufi Metaphysics
- 8 Toward an Occasionalist Philosophy of Science
- 9 Causality and Freedom in Later Islamic Philosophy
- 10 Occasionalism in the Modern Context
- 11 Islamic Theories of Causality in the Modern Context
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
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.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Islam, Causality, and FreedomFrom the Medieval to the Modern Era, pp. 60 - 82Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020