The Incoherence of the Philosophers, 2nd Edition (Brigham Young University - Islamic Translation Series) 2nd Edition

This is an excellent volume for those interested in classical Islamic scholastic thought. Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali is in many ways to orthodox Sunni Islamic thought what St. Thomas Aquinas was to Roman Catholic theological and philosophical thought. The translation is good, however I would not suggest this book to someone not already familiar with classical philosophical (both Greek and Islamic) arguments. For one already familiar with the writings and arguments of Plato, Aristotle, al-Farabi, and ibn Sina (Avicenna), will find this book as an invaluable intellectual and philosophical source.

This is an excellent source for comparing and understanding the subtle but, strong doctrinal and historical differentiating issues between THEOLOGY and PHILOSOPHY, i.e., the differences and doctrinal conflict between religious 'dogma' and philosophical 'theory;' i.e., between the literal meaning or interpretation, and the metaphorical meaning or interpretation of scripture and religiousity.

An excellent and thought-provoking treatise on Islamic philosophy compared with that of Greeks. Needs a lot of concentration and I recommend have a small sip each time to internalize the discussions by one of the most influential scholar and Great Imam of 11th-12th century.

Superb product and excellent service. Thank you.

Al-Ghazali sets the standard for medieval Islamic trash talking in this one.

We need more! The `Incoherence of the Philosophers' (Tahafut al-falasifa) is part of a series of books in which Ghazali intended to explain his position vis-a-vis philosophy and kalam. (For our purposes here, Kalam is speculative theology.) The first book, `The Aims of the Philosophers' (Maqasid al-falasifa), is a fair and neutral exposition of the philosophy of Avicenna. Indeed, as Marmura notes, Ghazali "wrote this work of exposition to explain the philosophers' theories as a prelude to his refuting them in the Tahafut." Note that although Ghazali speaks of both al-Farabi and Avicenna in the Incoherence he usually is speaking of Avicenna. The next book in the series is this book, the Incoherence, and it is intended to be the refutation of philosophy. Then comes `the Standard for Knowledge' (Mi'yar al-'ilm) which, according to Marmura, "is an exposition of Avicennan logic, the most comprehensive of such expositions that al-Ghazali wrote." Ghazali considered logic philosophically neutral and thus a fitting tool for both theologians and jurists. Note that this position is itself controversial among the defenders of orthodoxy - see, for example, what Ibn Taymiyya says about Greek logic. Now, Ghazali considered his work on logic an appendix to the Tahafut. Lastly, in this series, Ghazali writes his `Moderation in Belief' (Al-iqtisad fi al-i'tiqad) which is an exposition of Kalam, specifically, Ash'arite theology. This Ash'arite theology is the type of Kalam that Ghazali then adhered to. Of this Marmura says that in, "the Tahafut al-Ghazali intended to refute and negate; in the Iqtisad, to build and affirm what he declared to be true doctrine." So you see that the Tahafut is only part of a series of books that presented Ghazali's comprehensive position on philosophy (and kalam) at this point in his career. We now need the Islamic Translation Series to publish these companion pieces of the Tahafut so we too can see Ghazali's comprehensive view. ...But keep in mind that this is not his final view; after writing these books (1091-1095) Ghazali had his spiritual crises that led to his turn toward mysticism. This is, btw, a fine bilingual edition superbly translated; both Marmura and the Islamic Translation Series deserve to be proud. For those of you that still want more turn to the reply of the falasifa in Averroes, `the Incoherence of the Incoherence' (Tahafut al-Tahafut), which has been translated by Simon Van Den Bergh and contains over 200 pages of notes! I only give 4 stars (instead of 5) until the three books that were meant by Ghazali to be read with the Incoherence are translated and published.

Hard to find academic text. Glad to track down and at a reasonable price. Not light reading. Three more words

Though only a sparse number of Medieval Muslim thinkers are familiar to Western readers, al-Ghazali is likely to be one of the most often mentioned names as THE representative classical intellectual of Sunni Islam. Not too rarely is he compared with the Christian intellectual giant, St. Augustine. This is not an inaccurate portrait. As such, many curious readers may desire to read something by al-Ghazali in order to sample his thought. This volume might be tempting to some since it is one of his most famous works. I regret to say that I must recommend against it, for although the work itself is a classic, a masterpiece of Islamic scholarship, it is also deeply abstruse. Moreover, there is little that is asserted in the positive sense of al-Ghazali's personal beliefs. Being that the main aim of the work is to show the feebleness and vanity of philosophy to surpass revelation, most of the work can be characterized as principally deconstructive. In this regard, it is as vicious as it is systematic, rigorous and disarming even if the consequences al-Ghazali pointed to, such as atomism and the denial of all forms of causality, appear highly tendentious to all modern currents of thought. All but the most intrepid readers, I fear, may despair at its contents. I wholeheartedly recommend the potential to start elsewhere, such as Deliverance from Error, an autobiographical work.With this caveat in mind, a few words about this edition for the non-initiate. The translation and the editing of the Arabic text are absolutely top-notch, and the parallel placement of the English-Arabic columns are easily followed by those familiar with both languages. Accompanying the text throughout are expository and explanatory notes that are immanently useful for both understanding cross-referencing the text with the works of the likes of Ibn Sina and al-Farabi. The aim of this series to create a parallel of the `Loeb Classics' for Islamic Studies appears to be directly on course.