The Incoherence of the Incoherence
Averroes’s 12th-century Arabic work defending Aristotelian philosophy against al-Ghazali’s arguments in The Incoherence of the Philosophers.
The Incoherence of the Philosophers: Al-Ghazali’s critique of the philosophers’ metaphysical doctrines, especially those associated with Avicenna. This is the work Averroes takes as his opponent, responding to its twenty discussions.
Averroes: A twelfth-century Andalusian philosopher, jurist, and physician known for commentaries on Aristotle. He composed this response to restore what he saw as the sound philosophical position.
Aristotelian metaphysics: Aristotle’s inquiry into being, substance, causes, and the first principles of reality. The work defends metaphysical positions that al-Ghazali challenges.
Latin Averroism: A medieval European movement that drew on Averroes’s interpretations of Aristotle. Averroes’s defense helped transmit Aristotelian philosophy into Latin intellectual debates.
Aristotelianism: The philosophical tradition grounded in Aristotle’s works and their later interpretation. Averroes defends this tradition against al-Ghazali’s charges.
Al-Ghazali: An eleventh-century Persian theologian, jurist, and mystic who criticized influential philosophical doctrines. His critique prompted Averroes to write the work and shaped its central arguments.
Kalam: Islamic scholastic theology, which uses rational argument to defend doctrines of faith. Al-Ghazali’s criticisms draw on theological arguments that Averroes answers.
Averroes’ Tahafut al-Tahafut: The Arabic title of Averroes’s work commonly known in English as The Incoherence of the Incoherence. The title’s repeated “incoherence” signals its direct reversal of al-Ghazali’s book title.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose writings shaped logic, metaphysics, natural philosophy, and ethics. Averroes treats Aristotle’s philosophy as a coherent system that al-Ghazali has misrepresented.
Islamic Golden Age: A period of flourishing intellectual and scientific activity across parts of the Islamic world, especially from the eighth to thirteenth centuries. The work emerged from debates sustained by the translation and study of Greek philosophy.