Al-Ghazālī on the Origins of Ethics

مرکز و کتابخانه مطالعات اسلامی به زبان های اروپایی

منو

" Al-Ghazālī on the Origins of Ethics "
Taneli Kukkonen

Document Type	:	AL
Record Number	:	1079212
Doc. No	:	LA122841
Call No	:	‭10.1163/15685276-12341423‬
Language of Document	:	English
Main Entry	:	Taneli Kukkonen
Title & Author	:	Al-Ghazālī on the Origins of Ethics [Article]\ Taneli Kukkonen
Publication Statement	:	Leiden: Brill
Title of Periodical	:	Numen
Date	:	2016
Volume/ Issue Number	:	63/2-3
Page No	:	271–298
Abstract	:	In his famous autobiography, The Deliverer from Error, al-Ghazālī reconstructs the way the science of ethics is supposed to have developed. Al-Ghazālī contends that the philosophical ethics taught by the Arabic Aristotelians necessarily depends upon prior revelations handed to religious aspirants of a vaguely Sufi stamp. Al-Ghazālī’s argument is reminiscent of similar ones made in late antiquity; I maintain, however, that for al-Ghazālī the point bears added systematic significance. Given the central position held by the purification of the soul in al-Ghazālī’s conception of true religion, he can hardly admit that the philosophers should have discovered independently any of the philosophical ethics al-Ghazālī himself espouses. It is the supernatural power of prescribed ritual acts that ultimately allows al-Ghazālī to maintain the superiority of religiously predicated ethics. In his famous autobiography, The Deliverer from Error, al-Ghazālī reconstructs the way the science of ethics is supposed to have developed. Al-Ghazālī contends that the philosophical ethics taught by the Arabic Aristotelians necessarily depends upon prior revelations handed to religious aspirants of a vaguely Sufi stamp. Al-Ghazālī’s argument is reminiscent of similar ones made in late antiquity; I maintain, however, that for al-Ghazālī the point bears added systematic significance. Given the central position held by the purification of the soul in al-Ghazālī’s conception of true religion, he can hardly admit that the philosophers should have discovered independently any of the philosophical ethics al-Ghazālī himself espouses. It is the supernatural power of prescribed ritual acts that ultimately allows al-Ghazālī to maintain the superiority of religiously predicated ethics.
Descriptor	:	al-Ghazālī
Descriptor	:	history of religions
Descriptor	:	Islamic ethics
Descriptor	:	Islamic Neoplatonism
Descriptor	:	Platonic ethics
Descriptor	:	prophetology
Descriptor	:	Sufism
Location & Call number	:	‭10.1163/15685276-12341423‬