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

(Translation from Arabic into Russian, intoduction and comments)

This series of publications is a translation of selected sections from the book «The Incoherence of the Incoherence» (Tahafut at-Tahafut) of a peripatetic philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 1198), written in response to the book of asharite mutakallim al-Ghazali (d. 1111)

«The Incoherence of the Philosophers» (Tahafut al-Falasifa). The first of these sections and the longest one is devoted to the question of the world’s eternity.

In this part Ibn Rushd continues examining the first of the two objections raised by al-Ghazali as the main proof for the pre-eternity of God’s creation – «from the complete cause», or, in Ghazaliane wording, «It is impossible that the temporal should proceed from the absolutely eternal». According to this objection, it is the God’s eternal will that predetermined the specific moment when the world came into being.

1. Ibrahim T., Efremova N.V. Ibn-Rushd (Averroes). The Incoherence of the Incoherence. Part One. Minbar. Islamic Studies. 2020;13(3):605–636. DOI: 10.31162/2618-9569-2020-13-3-605-636 (In Russian)

2. Ibn Rushd. Tahafut at-Tahafut. Beirut: Markaz dirasat al-wahda al-‘arabiyya; 1998. 600 p. (In Arabic)

3. Algazel. Tahāfot al-Falāsifat. Bouyges M. (ed.). Beirut: Impremerie catholique; 1927. 30, 447 p. (In Arabic)

4. al-Ghazali. Tahafut al-Falasifa. Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif; 1972. 371 p. (In Arabic)

5. al-Ghazali. Krushenie pozicij filosofov [The Incoherence of the Philosophers]. Popov I.M. (tr.). Moscow: Ansar; 2007. 277 p. (In Russian)

6. ash-Shahrastani. Kniga o religiyakh i sektakh [A Book on religions and sects]. Moscow: Nauka; 1984. 270 p. (In Russian)

7. Ibn-Sīnā. An-Najāt. Tehran: Daneshgаh-e Tehrаn; 1978. 783 p. (In Arabic)

8. Marmura M.E. Avicenna and the problem of infinite number of souls. Mediaeval Studies. 1960;22:232–239; reprint in: Marmura M.E. Probing in islamic philosophy: studies in the philosophies of Ibn Sīnā, al-Ghazālī and other major muslim thinkers. Binghamton, NY: Global Academic Publishing; 2005.

9. McGinnis J. Avicennan infinity: a select history of the infinite throughAvicenna. Documenti e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale. 2010;21:199–222.

10. Aristotle. O dushe [On the Soul]. Aristotel. Sochineniya v chetyryokh tomakh. T. 1. [Aristotle. Writings in four volumes]. Vol. 1. Moscow: Mysl press; 1976, pp. 369–448. (In Russian)

11. Ibrahim T., Efremova N.V. On Averroes’s response to al-Ghazali’s critique of Philosophy. Minbar. Islamic Studies. 2020;13(2):378–400. DOI: 10.31162/2618-9569-2020-13-2-378-400 (In Russian)

12. Aristotle. O nebe [On the Heavens]. Sochineniya v chetyryokh tomakh. T.1. [Aristotle. Writings in four volumes]. Vol. 3. Moscow: Mysl press; 1976, pp. 263–363. (In Russian)