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

acts which proceed from the arts, and some of the philosophers ascribe
intellect to this nature, and some say that this nature does not possess
intellect but acts only by natures And they say that this nature proceeds
from an intellect, because they compare it to artificial things which move
themselves and from which orderly well-arranged acts proceed . And
therefore their master Aristotle asserts that it is manifest that the nature of
intellect rules the universe. ? And how far is this belief from what Ghazali
ascribes to them!
Who, however, assumes as a universal maxim that he who knows
himself must know other things which proceed from him, must conclude
that he who does not know other things cannot know himself.
And having refuted Avicenna’s theory that God knows other things, by the
arguments of the philosophers on this point which he adduces against
him, ‘ he concludes against him that the First does not know itself; and this
conclusion is valid. ,
And as to what he relates of the argument of the philosophers on this
point, namely that they say that he who does not know himself is dead and
the First cannot be dead, this is a persuasive argument composed of
common propositions, for he who is not alive is not dead unless it is in his
nature to receive life’-or one must mean by ‘dead’ what is meant by
‘inanimate’ and ‘inorganic’, and then this is a true dichotomy, for every
existent is either alive or inorganic, provided we understand by ‘life’ a term
which is equivocally used of the eternal and the corruptible.
And as to Ghazali’s words:
I say:
And if they return to the doctrine that everything which is
free from matter is intellect by itself and therefore thinks
itself, we have shown that this is an arbitrary judgement
without any proof.
We have already shown the manner in which this proof of the
philosophers must be taken, in so far as this proof preserves its power by
being given in this book-I mean its power is diminished, as is necessary
when a thing is removed from its natural context. And as to what he says
of their arguing on this point against the philosophers that the existent is
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