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

the irascible and the concupiscible soul hinder the human soul in the
perception of what is proper to it. It appears from the nature of these and
similar sayings that they are possible and are in need of proofs, and that
they open the way to many conflicting possibilities.
And this closes what we decided to mention of the different assertions
which this book contains about theological problems; this is the most
important part of our book. We shall now speak on physical problems.
Ghazali says:
ABOUT THE NATURAL SCIENCES
The so-called natural sciences are many, and we shall
enumerate their parts, in order to make it known that the
Holy Law does not ask one to contest and refute them,
except in certain points we shall mention. ‘ They are divided
into principal classes and subdivisions The principal classes
are eight. In the first class are treated the divisibility,
movement, and change which affect body in so far as it is
body, and the relations and consequences of movement like
time, space, and void, ‘ and all this is contained in Aristotle’s
Physics. The second treats of the disposition of the parts of
the elements of the world, namely heaven and the four
elements which are within the sphere of the moon, and their
natures and the cause of the disposition of each of them in a
definite place; and this is contained in Aristotle’s De coelo.
The third treats of the conditions of generation and
corruption, of equivocal generation and of sexual generation,
of growth and decay, of transmutations, and how the species
are conserved, whereas the individuals perish through the
two heavenly movements (westwards and eastwards), and
this is contained in De generatione et corruptione. The fourth
treats of the conditions which are found in the four elements
through their mixture, by which there occur meteorological
phenomena like clouds and rain and thunder, lightning, the
halo round the moon, the rainbow, thunderbolts, winds, and
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