Al-Ghazali's views on logic
Greek logic was transmitted to the Islamic World within the Greek philosophical tradition. Although various Greek books on logic had been translated into Arabic several times, logic remained, up to the time of Al-Ghazali, suspected as dangerous for religious belief and confined to the circles of the philosophers. It was not able to enter overtly into religious education. Al-Ghazali found many schools of thought in his time, each one claiming that truth and certainty were confined to it. He was acquainted with all these different schools of thought. At first, he was not able to determine which was right or wrong. Thus he searched for a criterion by which he could distinguish between certain and nonâcertain knowledge. After a comprehensive quest, he found that logic was the only criterion of knowledge and its methods of inference are the onlymethods of research by which one can achieve new certain knowledge. Thus he adopted Aristotle's theory of certainty. Furthermore, he tried to build his concept of certainty and certain knowledge on epistemological bases. After becoming completely convinced of the great importance of logic, al-Ghazali, in an attempt to restore the system of religious education, worked out
Ahmad, Azmi T. al-Sayyed
Al-Ghazali's views on logic. Greek logic was transmitted to the Islamic World within the Greek philosophical tradition. Although various Greek books on logic had been translated into Arabic several times, logic remained, up to the time of Al-Ghazali, suspected as dangerous for religious belief and confined to the circles of the philosophers. It was not able to enter overtly into religious education. Al-Ghazali found many schools of thought in his time, each one claiming that truth and certainty were confined to it. He was acquainted with all these different schools of thought. At first, he was not able to determine which was right or wrong. Thus he searched for a criterion by which he could distinguish between certain and nonâcertain knowledge. After a comprehensive quest, he found that logic was the only criterion of knowledge and its methods of inference are the onlymethods of research by which one can achieve new certain knowledge. Thus he adopted Aristotle's theory of certainty. Furthermore, he tried to build his concept of certainty and certain knowledge on epistemological bases. After becoming completely convinced of the great importance of logic, al-Ghazali, in an attempt to restore the system of religious education, worked out
view logic greek logic transmit islamic_world within greek philosophical_tradition although various greek book logic translate arabic several time logic remain time suspect dangerous religious_belief confine circle philosopher able enter overtly religious_education find many school_think time claim truth certainty confine acquaint different school_think first able determine right_wrong thus search criterion could distinguish certain non certain knowledge comprehensive quest find logic criterion knowledge method inference achieve new certain knowledge thus adopt aristotle_theory certainty furthermore try build concept certainty certain knowledge epistemological base become completely great_importance logic attempt restore system religious_education work