In your plan: Week 18, Mon, 15 Feb 2027.
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Overview
The Decisive Treatise (Fasl al-Maqal) is a short work by Ibn Rushd, known in Europe as Averroes, written in Cordoba around 1180. It takes the form of a legal opinion on whether the study of philosophy is permitted, forbidden or required by Islamic law. His answer is that it is required, and that truth cannot contradict truth, so apparent conflicts between revelation and demonstration must be resolved by interpretation. It remains a classic argument for reconciling faith and reason.
Context
Ibn Rushd was born in Cordoba in 1126 and served as a judge, physician and adviser under the Almohad dynasty, which ruled much of Muslim Spain and North Africa. He wrote commentaries on Aristotle so extensive that Latin readers called him the Commentator. Al-Ghazali's attack on the philosophers, a century earlier, had shaped the climate in which he wrote.
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Curator's notes
- Why it matters
- Argued that philosophy and religion cannot truly conflict. Revived Aristotle for Europe.
- Use in training and coaching
- Holding two frameworks at once; reconciling faith and evidence
- Connects to
- Aristotle; Aquinas; Renaissance
- What to read
- Whole text (short)
- Text (date)
- Ibn Rushd (Averroes), The Decisive Treatise (c. 1180)
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