Al-Ghazālī on the Origins of Ethics

in Numen
Author: Taneli Kukkonen1
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1 New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Philosophy, P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Online Publication Date:
09 Mar 2016
Volume/Issue:
Volume 63: Issue 2-3
Article Type:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341423
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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.

Numen

International Review for the History of Religions

eISSN:
1568-5276
Print ISSN:
0029-5973
Publisher:
BRILL
Numen

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2

Ghazālī 1967: 86[0]. All English translations in this article are my own.

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