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Undoing the clickbait: After many paragraphs telling that the reason is not simple, it finally centers in occasionalism. > At the heart of Ash’ari metaphysics
by sasaf5 6y ago
Undoing the clickbait:
After many paragraphs telling that the reason is not simple, it finally centers in occasionalism.
> At the heart of Ash’ari metaphysics is the idea of occasionalism, a doctrine that denies natural causality. Put simply, it suggests natural necessity cannot exist because God’s will is completely free. Ash’arites believed that God is the only cause, so that the world is a series of discrete physical events each willed by God.
- disease 6y agoI'll admit to not having read the full article, but would a belief like this make the assumption that God's will could even overrule logic itself. Could God will 2 + 2 = 5? How would you rationalize this? Or perhaps the point is to irradiate rationality.
- sasaf5 6y agoThe point is not to rationalize. God could 2 + 2 = 5 and stop trying to understand His will as it is arbitrary. And then of course use this narrative to legitimize some autocrat.
- mmmmmk 6y agoYes, Al-Ghazali made that point. I don't remember the specific passage but he made the comment that if he left a book in his library, he has no way to know that god did not turn it into a donkey, which was at that moment pissing on all his other books. I'll search for that quote, because it was pretty exciting for a medieval philosophy class.