Abstract
Al-Ghazālı̄ was a Muslim lawyer, theologian, and mystic. Today al-Ghazālı̄ is regarded as one of the most important kalām scholars in Muslim intellectual history. In his two books The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahāfut al-falāsifa) and Moderation in Belief (Al-Iqtiṣād fı̄ al-I‘tiqād), al-Ghazālı̄ makes a significant contribution to the kalām cosmological argument. In this chapter I examine this contribution by surveying al-Ghazālı̄’s cosmological argument.
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Notes
- 1.
Important proponents of falsafa include al-Fārābı̄ (872–950), Ibn Sı̄nā (980–1037) and Ibn Rushd (1126–1198).
- 2.
This is clear because al-Ghazālı̄ responds to those who may ask, ‘Why did you say that every body and extended substance is not devoid of occurrents?’ (al-Ghazālı̄ 2013:30–31).
- 3.
Although al-Ghazālı̄ does not explain why an infinite regress of causes is impossible, one may assume his reason is that the existence of any actually infinite sequence is impossible.
- 4.
Because al-Ghazālı̄ believes that God is the cause of the world, he uses the term ‘God’ here rather than ‘the cause of the world’.
- 5.
Al-Ghazālı̄ also contends that the First Cause possesses power, knowledge and life (al-Ghazālı̄ 2013:83–105), thus suggesting that the First Cause is a person.
References
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Erasmus, J. (2018). Al-Ghazālī’s Kalām Cosmological Argument. In: The Kalām Cosmological Argument: A Reassessment. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73438-5_4
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