Two Competing Approaches in the Mu‘tazilite View of the Human Being: The Traditions of Abū al-Hudhayl and al-Naẓẓām
Journal Title: Nazariyat İslam Felsefe ve Bilim Tarihi Araştırmaları Dergisi - Year 2018, Vol 4, Issue 2
Abstract
The aim of this article is to illustrate the two human conceptions introduced in the Basran School of Muʿtazila with their reflections on the fields like theoretical physics, epistemology, and ethics. In the Muʿtazilite school that started off with al-Naẓẓām, continued with al-Jāḥiẓ and was grounded on the refutation of atomism, human being is actually a spirit and body is just an instrument. Whereas in the Muʿtazilite school that started off with Abū al-Hudhayl, peaked at al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār and was based on the acceptance of atomism, human being is actually a body and spirit is just a breath incapable of influencing any human actions. These two different attitude toward the conception of human being, have further consequences on the problems of epistemology and ethics. As a matter of fact, al-Naẓẓām and his successors, who accepted the human nature, took up topics like the construction of self, while Abū-Hudhayl and his supporters, who denied the existence of nature or any continuous power, focused on the emergence of action rather than the subject.
Authors and Affiliations
Yunus Cengiz
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP450154
- DOI 10.12658/Nazariyat.4.2.M0056en
- Views 147
- Downloads 0
The Question of Disposition and Virtue in ‘Adud al-Dın al-Ijı
The primary objective of this article is to investigate the reception of Avicennan psychology by ‘Adud al-Dīn al-Ījī via a focus on his works like al-Akhlāq al-‘adudiyyah, al-Mawāqif, and Tahqīq al-tafsīr; his approach t...
A Fifteenth-Century Mamluk Astronomer in the Ottoman Realm: ‘Umar al-Dimashqī and his ‘ilm al-mīqāt corpus the Hamidiye 1453
The 15th century emergence of the Ottoman scientific endeavours occurred at a fortunate time when scientific knowledge in the Islamic world was already advanced. Since the Ottomans never had an intention to reinvent the...
Is it Possible to Speak of an Illuminationist Circle in the Ottoman Scholarly World? An Analysis of the Ottoman Scholarly Conception of Illuminationism
This article seeks to answer the questions of how Ottoman scholars perceived Illuminationist thought and Illuminationism and whether a milieu favorably disposed to Illuminationism existed. It first questions how and thro...
On Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjanı’s Risala fi taqsim al-‘ilm: Analysis and Critical Edition
This research focuses on the previously unpublished treatise by Sayyid Sharīf al-Jurjānī, Risāla fī taqsīm al-‘ilm. The research is based on comparative evaluation of available manuscipts and is composed of a critical ed...
From Faculties to Functions: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Critique of Internal Senses
One of the basic questions of the classical theory of soul is the theory of internal senses. It is Avicenna who gave this theory its most elaborate form. While he effectively revised the theory of internal senses that he...