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

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conclusion which the philosophers forced upon them: that if the attributesexisted through the essence, the essence would be an existent necessarythrough itself, and the attributes would be necessary through somethingdifferent from themselves, and the essence of the necessary existentwould exist by itself, but the attributes would be necessary throughsomething different from themselves, and essence and attributes togetherwould form a compound. z But the Ash’arites do not concede to thephilosophers that the existence of a necessary existent, subsisting byitself, implies that it has no cause whatsoever, for their argument leadsonly to the denial of an efficient cause additional to the essence. ;Ghazali says:The objection against this is to say: The case to beaccepted is the last, but we have shown in the fifthdiscussion that you have no proof for your denial of the firstcase, that of absolute duality; what is affirmed by you in thefifth discussion can only be justified by basing it upon yourdenial of plurality in this and the following discussions: howcan you therefore base this discussion upon what” is itselfthe upshot of this discussion?’ But the correct solution is tosay: `The essence does not need the attributes for itssubsistence, whereas the attributes need a subject, as is thecase with us ourselves. ‘ There remains their statement thatwhat is in need of something else is not a necessaryexistent.One may ask them: Why do you make such a statement,if you understand by `necessary existent’ only that which hasno efficient cause, and why is it impossible to say that, justas there is no agent for the essence of the necessaryexistent, which is eternal, there is no agent for its attributes,which are equally eternal? If, however, you understand by`necessary existent’ that which has no receptive cause, weanswer that that is not implied in this conception of thenecessary existent, which, according to this conception is allthe same eternal and has no agent; and what is wrong withthis conception?258
If it is answered that the absolute necessary existent isthat which has no efficient cause and no receptive cause, xfor if a receptive cause for it were conceded, it would beconceded that it was an effect-we say: To call the receptiveessence a receptive cause is one of your technical terms,and there is no proof of the real existence of a necessaryexistent corresponding to your terminology; all that. is provedis that there must be a final term to the series of causes andeffects, and no more, and this series can end in a unit witheternal attributes which have no more an agent than theessence itself, and are supposed to be in the essence itself.But let us put aside this term ‘necessary existent’, which isfull of possible confusion. The proof indeed onlydemonstrates the end of the series and nothing more, andyour further claims are pure presumption.If it is said: In the same way as the series of efficientcauses must have an end, the series of receptive causesmust have an end, since if every existent needed asubstratum to inhere in it and this substratum again neededa substratum, this would imply an infinite series, just as thiswould be the case if every existent needed a cause and thiscause again another cause-we answer: You are perfectlyright and for this very reason we say that the series has anend and that the attribute exists in its essence and that thisessence does not exist in something else, just as ourknowledge exists in our essence and our essence is itssubstratum, but does not exist itself in a substratum. Theseries of efficient causes comes to an end for the attribute atthe same time as for the essence, since the attribute has anagent no more than the essence has, still the essenceprovided with this attribute does not cease to exist, althoughneither itself nor its attribute has a cause. As to the receptivecauses, its series can only end in the essence, for how couldthe negation of a cause imply the negation of a substratum?The proof does not demonstrate anything but the terminationof the series, and every method by which this terminationcan be explained is sufficient to establish the proof which259
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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
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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
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 252: And when it is said that He is gene
Page 253 and 254: I say:separate from matter is possi
Page 255 and 256: exist both an essence and attribute
Page 257: by themselves, just as, if their ex
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
Page 303 and 304: distinguished by the fact that one
Page 305 and 306: one of these natures is superior to
Page 307 and 308: 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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