Tahafut_al-Tahafut-transl-Engl-van-den-Bergh

I say:
He wants to force those who assume the possibility of the soul’s
becoming without there being an imprint in matter to concede that the
possibility in the recipient is like the possibility in the agent, because the
act proceeds from the agent and therefore these two possibilities are
similar. But this is a shocking supposition, for, according to it, the soul
would come to the body as if it directed it from the outside, as the artisan
directs his product, and the soul would not be a form in the body, just as
the artisan is not a form in his product. The answer is that it is not
impossible that there should be amongst i the entelechies which conduct
themselves like formsb something that is separate from its substratum as
the steersman is from his ships and the artisan from his tool, and if the
body is like the instrument of the
soul, the soul is a separate form, and then the possibility which is in the
instrument is not like the possibility which is in the agent; no, the
instrument is in both conditions, the possibility which is in the patient and
the possibility which is in the agent, and therefore the instruments are the
mover and the moved, and in so far as they are the mover, there is in
them the possibility which is in the agent, and in so far as they are moved,
the possibility which is in the recipient.’ But the supposition that the soul is
a separate entity does not force them into the admission that the
possibility which is in the recipient is identical= with the possibility which is
in the agent. Besides, the possibility which according to the philosophers
is in the agent is not only a rational judgement, but refers to something
outside the soul. Therefore his argument does not gain by assimilating
one of these two possibilities to the other. And since Ghazali knew that all
these arguments have no other effect than to bring doubts and perplexity
to those who cannot solve them-which is an act of wicked sophists, he
says:
And if it is said you have taken good care in all your
objections to oppose the difficulties by other difficulties, but
nothing of what you yourself have adduced is free from
difficulty, we answer: the objections do show the falsity of an
argument, no doubt, and certain aspects of the problem are
solved in stating the opposite view and its foundation. We
have not committed ourselves to anything more than to
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