Ibn-Rushd (Averroes). The Incoherence of the Incoherence. Part Six

Abstract

This work completes the series of publications that began in № 3 (2020), which is a translation of selected sections from the book «The Incoherence of the Incoherence» (Tahāfut at-Tahāfut), written by a peripatetic philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 1198) in response to the polemical treatise of asharite mutakallim al-Ghazali (d. 1111) «The Incoherence of the Philosophers» (Tahāfut al-Falāsifa).Dealing in this section with the third of the “heretical” (kufr) theses attributed to philosophers – about the alleged denial of bodily resurrection and sensory retribution, Ibn Rushd rejects this accusation and points out that from a Falsafa point of view, such principles of religion are necessary for the establishment of practical and theoretical virtues, and therefore are not subject to discussion. The philosopher notes the advantage of a bodily description of afterlife, however claims that bodies will be similar to earthly ones, but not identical to them.