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

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perfection. If it could be imagined of a single man that heknew his own perfection in comprehending all intelligibles, ifhe could comprehend them, that he knew the beauty of hisown form, the perfection of his power, the strength of hislimbs, in short if he perceived in himself the presence of allperfection of which he was capable, he would love hisperfection and enjoy it, and his enjoyment would only beincomplete through the possibility of its loss and itsdiminution, for the joy which refers to the transitory, or towhat is feared to be transitory, is not perfect. ‘ But the Firstpossesses the most perfect splendour and the mostcomplete beauty, since all perfection is possible to Him andpresent in Him, and He perceives this beauty, secure againstthe possibility of its diminution and loss, and the perfectionHe possesses is superior to all perfection, and His love andHis enjoyment of this perfection are superior to all love andto all enjoyment, and His enjoyment cannot be compared inany way to our enjoyment and is too glorious to be calledenjoyment, joy, and delight, for we have no expressions forsuch concepts, and using these terms metaphorically forHim, we must be conscious of the great difference, just aswhen we apply to Him metaphorically our terms, ‘willing’,choosing’, ‘acting’, we are convinced of the great distancebetween His will, power, and knowledge, from our will,power, and knowledge, and it is not impossible that this term‘enjoyment’ should be regarded as improper and thatanother term should be used. , What we want to express isthat His state is more glorious than the conditions of theangels, and more desirable, and the condition of the angelsis more glorious than our condition; and if there were noother joy than in bodily desire and sex, the condition of theass and the pig would be superior to the state of the angels,but the angels, who are separate from matter, have no otherjoy than the joy arising from the knowledge of their share inperfection and beauty, the cessation of which is not to befeared. But the joy of the First is superior to the joy of theangels, and the existence of the angels which are intellects252
I say:separate from matter is possible in its essence andnecessary of existence through another, and the possibilityof non-existence is a kind of badness and imperfection, andnothing is absolutely free from badness except the First, andHe is the absolute good and He possesses the utmostsplendour and beauty; further, He is the beloved, whetheranyone else loves Him or not, as He is the knower and theknown, whether anyone else knows Him or not. And allthese concepts refer to His essence and to His perceptionand to His knowledge of His essence, and the knowledge ofHis essence is His very essence, for He is pure intellect, andall this leads back to one single notion.This is the way to set forth their doctrine, and thesethings can be divided into that which may be believed (butwe shall show that according to their own principles theymust regard it as untrue) and into that which may not bebelieved (and we shall show its falsehood). We shall nowreturn to the five classes of plurality and to their claim todeny them, and shall show their inability to establish theirproof, and shall treat each question separately.The greater part of what he mentions in his description of thephilosophical theories about God as being one, notwithstanding theplurality of attributes ascribed to Him, he has stated accurately, and weshall not argue with him about it, with the exception of his statement thatto Him the designation of ‘intellect’ is a negation; for this is not true-on thecontrary it is the most special appellation for His essence according to thePeripatetics, in contrast to Plato’s opinion that the intellect is not the FirstPrinciple and that intellect cannot be attributed to the First Principle? Noris his statement that in the separate intellects there is potency, nonexistence,and badness a philosophical theory. But we shall now return tohis refutations in these five questions.253
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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
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I say:existence whether earlier or
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I say:and needs something to which
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I sayThe second proof is that the i
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I say:essence nor matter’ and the
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I sayalthough it is not impressed o
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Ghazali says:I say:As regards their
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I say:He wants to force those who a
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all his books this is most clearly
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extension is nothing but time, and
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concedes the existence of an entity
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I say:connected with another condit
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so only through the corruption and
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that it passes into a relative non-
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I say:the remainder; indeed He can
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This theory of the flux of all exis
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moments is constant, and how can wh
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I say:which has a reasonable sense,
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things are two: matter and form, an
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I say:an imposture where their prin
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I say:says that the lamp makes the
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anterior to it. If God therefore is
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it tends and has an inclination to
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and to exclude the metaphorical sen
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Ghazali says, answering in defence
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I say:connected with Him, since the
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from it, it exists, not when the th
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All this is true. The act of the ag
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of the water, for this happens afte
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existence of the celestial bodies o
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I say:We answer: The consequence of
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one occurred, they gave three answe
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is partly the cause of unity, partl
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I say:is therefore nineteen; and th
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each other is a theory not known am
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defined acts can only arise from be
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and earth that he should be of thos
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I say:another be identical?’ we a
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the universal, the other specific d
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similar follows concerning the nece
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I say:for this it really is. But th
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I say:from His way and deviate from
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We say:The philosophers tried to ac
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bodies prior to them. Thus they wer
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thinks only its own essence, and th
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suppose its agent to act like an ag
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draw this conclusion. For if the pr
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And that one and the same existent
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unique mover . And just as the remo
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a plurality of existents without a
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In this discussion of the intellect
Page 201 and 202: I say:The meaning of this statement
Page 203 and 204: I say:is the principle of these dif
Page 205 and 206: the possible nature cannot become n
Page 207 and 208: I say:a cause, what makes it imposs
Page 209 and 210: qualitative, or in whichsoever of t
Page 211 and 212: But if one should say to us: ‘Cer
Page 213 and 214: receive a stronger degree of assent
Page 215 and 216: as the differences depend on differ
Page 217 and 218: moment from its action, the world w
Page 219 and 220: And as to Ghazali's words:It is eas
Page 221 and 222: However, it is not possible that th
Page 223 and 224: without an initial term; and if you
Page 225 and 226: I say:The difference between these
Page 227 and 228: I say:cause, but not of the series
Page 229 and 230: I say:If it is objected that this m
Page 231 and 232: or non-eternity of the world, and w
Page 233 and 234: THE FIFTH DISCUSSIONTO SHOW THEIR I
Page 235 and 236: I say:colour because of a cause whi
Page 237 and 238: black must be a colour either by bl
Page 239 and 240: I say:The answer is that we concede
Page 241 and 242: I say:composed of genus and species
Page 243 and 244: necessary existent, and this is imp
Page 245 and 246: For man before his existence has a
Page 247 and 248: and it is thus their task to refer
Page 249 and 250: identical with the knower of the sh
Page 251: And when it is said that He is gene
Page 255 and 256: exist both an essence and attribute
Page 257 and 258: by themselves, just as, if their ex
Page 259 and 260: If it is answered that the absolute
Page 261 and 262: I say:need a subject, as is the cas
Page 263 and 264: I say:If it is said: In the same wa
Page 265 and 266: would have to exist by itself, and
Page 267 and 268: essence is not true, for every esse
Page 269 and 270: Composition is not like existence,
Page 271 and 272: All their proofs where this problem
Page 273 and 274: consciousness itself is denied. But
Page 275 and 276: things, and our intellect, therefor
Page 277 and 278: I say:both, for the plurality and t
Page 279 and 280: be a knowledge in act and that ther
Page 281 and 282: It may be said that if it is assert
Page 283 and 284: And as to the affirmation of the ph
Page 285 and 286: two existents which differ in an ex
Page 287 and 288: Ghazali says:It may be said, `This
Page 289 and 290: I say:beings should exist by themse
Page 291 and 292: because they found that the acciden
Page 293 and 294: And as to the term `substance’ wh
Page 295 and 296: I say:black and white, fourness and
Page 297 and 298: I say:constitution of the essence o
Page 299 and 300: principle which is the cause of tha
Page 301 and 302: 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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