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

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what Avicenna says is true. However, it is not true of the world, for theworld does not exit on account of this relation, but it exists on account ofits substance and the relation is only accidental to it. Perhaps whatAvicenna says is true concerning the forms of the celestial bodies, in sofar as they perceive the separate immaterial forms; and the philosophersaffirm this, because it is proved that there are immaterial forms whoseexistence consists in their thinking, whereas knowledge in this sublunaryworld only differs from its object because its object inheres in matter.’Ghazali, answering the philosophers, says:I say:Our answer is that the act is connected with the agentonly in so far as it comes into being, but not in so far as it ispreceded by non-existence nor in so far as it is merelyexistent. According to us the act is not connected with theagent for a second moment after its coming to be, for then itexists; it is only connected with it at the time of its coming tobe in so far as it comes to be and changes from nonexistenceinto existence. If it is denied the name ofbecoming, it cannot be thought to be an act nor to beconnected with the agent. Your statement, philosophers, thata thing’s coming to be means its being preceded by nonexistence,and that its being preceded by non-existencedoes not belong to the act of the agent and the deed of theproducer, is true; but this prior non-existence is a necessarycondition for the existent’s being an act of the agent. Forexistence not preceded by non-existence is everlasting, andcannot be truly said to be an act of the agent. Not allconditions necessary to make an act an act need proceedfrom the agent’s act; the essence, power, will, andknowledge of the agent are a condition of his being anagent, but do not derive from him. An act can only beimagined as proceeding from an existent, and the existence,will, power, and knowledge of the agent are a condition ofhis being an agent, although they do not derive from him.’152
All this is true. The act of the agent is only connected with the effect, inso far as it is moved, and the movement from potential to actual being iswhat is called becoming. And, as Ghazali says, nonexistence is one ofthe conditions for the existence of a movement through a mover.Avicenna’s argument that when it is a condition for the act of the agent tobe connected with the existence, the absence of this connexion impliesthat the agent is connected with its opposite, i.e. non-existence, is nottrue. But the philosophers affirm that there are existents whose essentialspecific differences consist in motion, e.g. the winds and so on; and theheavens and the sublunary bodies belong to the genus of existentswhose existence lies in their movement, and if this is true, they areeternally in a continual becoming. And therefore, just as the eternalexistent is more truly existent than the temporal, similarly that which iseternally in becoming is more truly coming to be than that which comes tobe only during a definite time. And if the substance of the world were notin this condition of continual movement, the world would not, after itsexistence, need the Creator, just as a house after being completed andfinished does not need the builder’s existence, unless that were truewhich Avicenna tried to prove in the preceding argument, that theexistence of the world consists only in its relation to the agent; and wehave already said that we agree with. him so far as this concerns theforms of the heavenly bodies.Therefore the world is during the time of its existence in need of thepresence of its agent for both reasons together, namely, because thesubstance of the world is continually in motion and because its form,through which it has its subsistence and existence, is of the nature of arelation, not of the nature of a quality, i.e. the shapes and states whichhave been enumerated in the chapter on quality. A form which belongs tothe class of quality, and is included in it, is, when it exists and itsexistence is finished, in no need of an agent. All this will solve theproblem for you, and will remove from you the perplexity which befallsman through these contradictory statements.’Ghazali says, on behalf of the philosophers:The philosophers might say: If you acknowledge that it ispossible that the act should be simultaneous with the agentand not posterior to it, it follows that if the agent is temporal153
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TAHAFUT AL-TAHAFUT(The Incoherence
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THE FOURTEENTH DISCUSSION: To refut
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occupies the central place in the u
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commentator of Plato and Aristotle,
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and Physics, have left the religion
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gives the philosophical arguments a
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eternity of the world. Plato himsel
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it is God who is passive; the impel
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of events out of time is like the u
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God everything is possible, a theor
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by the philosophers, of the emanati
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God possesses self-consciousness).
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and is found in Thomas Aquinas and
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He himself does not affirm that the
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is immortal when he will see in him
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For the unphilosophical, however, t
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Concerning the Eternity of the Worl
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for both agents, i.e. so far as the
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an agent endowed with a power which
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I say:analogous to our decision, it
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I sayinadmissible and that to admit
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I say:sun performs in twenty-four h
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possible, not necessary, and he wou
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valid so far as it concerns externa
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do not know of any one who makes a
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sophistical arguments is dishonest,
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say that the age of the world is a
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I say:that two blacks in two substr
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I say:inside the world, neither con
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similar things, a will which distin
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whereas the globe of heaven is homo
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constitute the poles. But the diffe
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move itself in space, in a definite
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deeds?’ May God make us perspicac
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seeing are equivalent in the eye. T
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would be no possibility of their av
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through the medium of a being etern
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This argument is sophistical. The t
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and with Him there was the world an
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I say:If we should say, for instanc
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The primitive meaning of the two wo
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of the fact that motion inheres nec
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and then assumes a time which has n
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I say:and places of the world. The
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I say:eternal. So much as far as bo
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I say:which doubles the whole of th
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I say:world smaller than He has cre
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I say:possible that the world might
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I say:and possible at another?’ I
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pronounce for one of these opposite
Page 101 and 102: I say:existence whether earlier or
Page 103 and 104: I say:and needs something to which
Page 105 and 106: I sayThe second proof is that the i
Page 107 and 108: I say:essence nor matter’ and the
Page 109 and 110: I sayalthough it is not impressed o
Page 111 and 112: Ghazali says:I say:As regards their
Page 113 and 114: I say:He wants to force those who a
Page 115 and 116: all his books this is most clearly
Page 117 and 118: extension is nothing but time, and
Page 119 and 120: concedes the existence of an entity
Page 121 and 122: I say:connected with another condit
Page 123 and 124: so only through the corruption and
Page 125 and 126: that it passes into a relative non-
Page 127 and 128: I say:the remainder; indeed He can
Page 129 and 130: This theory of the flux of all exis
Page 131 and 132: moments is constant, and how can wh
Page 133 and 134: I say:which has a reasonable sense,
Page 135 and 136: things are two: matter and form, an
Page 137 and 138: I say:an imposture where their prin
Page 139 and 140: I say:says that the lamp makes the
Page 141 and 142: anterior to it. If God therefore is
Page 143 and 144: it tends and has an inclination to
Page 145 and 146: and to exclude the metaphorical sen
Page 147 and 148: Ghazali says, answering in defence
Page 149 and 150: I say:connected with Him, since the
Page 151: from it, it exists, not when the th
Page 155 and 156: of the water, for this happens afte
Page 157 and 158: existence of the celestial bodies o
Page 159 and 160: I say:We answer: The consequence of
Page 161 and 162: one occurred, they gave three answe
Page 163 and 164: is partly the cause of unity, partl
Page 165 and 166: I say:is therefore nineteen; and th
Page 167 and 168: each other is a theory not known am
Page 169 and 170: defined acts can only arise from be
Page 171 and 172: and earth that he should be of thos
Page 173 and 174: I say:another be identical?’ we a
Page 175 and 176: the universal, the other specific d
Page 177 and 178: similar follows concerning the nece
Page 179 and 180: I say:for this it really is. But th
Page 181 and 182: I say:from His way and deviate from
Page 183 and 184: We say:The philosophers tried to ac
Page 185 and 186: bodies prior to them. Thus they wer
Page 187 and 188: thinks only its own essence, and th
Page 189 and 190: suppose its agent to act like an ag
Page 191 and 192: draw this conclusion. For if the pr
Page 193 and 194: And that one and the same existent
Page 195 and 196: unique mover . And just as the remo
Page 197 and 198: a plurality of existents without a
Page 199 and 200: In this discussion of the intellect
Page 201 and 202: I say:The meaning of this statement
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I say:is the principle of these dif
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the possible nature cannot become n
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I say:a cause, what makes it imposs
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qualitative, or in whichsoever of t
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But if one should say to us: ‘Cer
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receive a stronger degree of assent
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as the differences depend on differ
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moment from its action, the world w
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And as to Ghazali's words:It is eas
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However, it is not possible that th
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without an initial term; and if you
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I say:The difference between these
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I say:cause, but not of the series
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I say:If it is objected that this m
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or non-eternity of the world, and w
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THE FIFTH DISCUSSIONTO SHOW THEIR I
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I say:colour because of a cause whi
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black must be a colour either by bl
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I say:The answer is that we concede
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I say:composed of genus and species
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necessary existent, and this is imp
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For man before his existence has a
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and it is thus their task to refer
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identical with the knower of the sh
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And when it is said that He is gene
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I say:separate from matter is possi
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exist both an essence and attribute
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by themselves, just as, if their ex
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If it is answered that the absolute
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I say:need a subject, as is the cas
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I say:If it is said: In the same wa
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would have to exist by itself, and
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essence is not true, for every esse
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Composition is not like existence,
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All their proofs where this problem
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consciousness itself is denied. But
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things, and our intellect, therefor
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I say:both, for the plurality and t
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be a knowledge in act and that ther
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It may be said that if it is assert
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And as to the affirmation of the ph
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two existents which differ in an ex
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Ghazali says:It may be said, `This
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I say:beings should exist by themse
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because they found that the acciden
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And as to the term `substance’ wh
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I say:black and white, fourness and
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I say:constitution of the essence o
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principle which is the cause of tha
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Gods would have to be separated by
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distinguished by the fact that one
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one of these natures is superior to
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Ghazali opposes this statement with
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against them about colouredness and
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I say:mediator, participates in thi
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application of the term ‘necessar
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meaning is to ask whether a thing p
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we have rent them . . . ‘and the
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Having assumed that they deny the q
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I say:plurality and duality on the
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assume one thing eternal by itself
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I say:But the body is not a means f
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views, or regarded this as permissi
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wisdom in the product itself, namel
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his attacks on the philosophers in
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I say:not possible, and your statem
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together, and the difference betwee
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I say:universe is known to God, and
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acknowledged in the case of this pr
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all things is attachment to matter
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simply the hot body that accepts co
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this conjunction and disjunction mu
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not imply (as he falsely affirms of
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I say:philosophers do, or abandon t
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consequences which follow from his
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But the knowledge of the Creator op
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I say:‘Well, let the seeing then
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acts which proceed from the arts, a
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the utmost excellence, which is kno
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move in circles and that between th
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This is what we wanted to do first,
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the person who takes up different p
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universals must, by admitting in Hi
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and if you acknowledge an eternal w
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I say:But one may say: Why is this
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existents would be the cause of His
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I say:will, because His will has th
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they exclude heaven from this kind
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And as to his affirmation ‘that t
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also have to ask about these bodies
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THE FIFTEENTH DISCUSSIONTO REFUTE T
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Everything he says here about the p
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himself through trying to be in an
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For instance, when a man sees that
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on sublunary existence, so that, if
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I say:any case, has to be proved, s
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causes. Sometimes we know part of t
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particular perceptions; that is, th
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shows it to him by way of revelatio
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if, however, reason does riot perce
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And if they reverse this against us
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the irascible and the concupiscible
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study a problem common to theoretic
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terms of the conclusion are present
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The ancient philosophers did not di
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fire; for we regard it as possible
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To deny the existence of efficient
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is not necessary, the philosophers
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I say:notwithstanding the fact that
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fire-not, however, absolutely, but
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When the theologians admit that the
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the angels there should arise a qua
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serpent, and the scorpion, for thei
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identification of black and white i
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objectionable, and contrary to comm
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that the judgement of our intellect
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from the wolf while it walks behind
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I say:it receives from the angels k
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about its premisses, for the major
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I say:in the doctrine of the philos
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a faculty in a body; and it follows
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indivisible; if the relation, howev
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fainting, drunkenness, and the illn
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saying that knowing is the opposite
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Such arguments are all arguments of
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claimed to be its organ, so that it
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I say:his head than to his heels, a
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I say:others-yes, it may be that th
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I say:anger and the observation of
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that Plato was forced to introduce
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I say:thing occurs, does not produc
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separate substance has no opposite.
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The Fourth DiscussionHaving finishe
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which are attributed to Solomon. An
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And all this, as you see, is confus
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