A critic of the philosophers

This lesson asks you to summarise the arguments critics have used against the answers of major philosophers, and to analyse their strengths and weaknesses. The museum sets out one critic's arguments, those of Ibn Khaldun, and none of the philosophers' replies, so your class will need the texts themselves and the other critics. ¹

Think about what a reply must show to count as an answer to a critic, and what the record lets you say and not say when only one side is given.

The museum's record of Ibn Khaldun's argument gives none of the philosophers' replies. Ask what you can conclude about an argument when you have heard only one side, and what you would need to find.

Take the argument apart before you judge it. In the Muqaddima, the record of the refutation of philosophy says, Ibn Khaldun describes the followers of philosophy as claiming that all existence, the sensible and what lies beyond it, has its essences and states known through speculative thought and rational syllogisms, and as devising a canon for telling truth from falsehood, which they called logic ². He then holds that their view is corrupt in several respects. Their attribution of existing things to the First Intellect falls short of what lies beyond it. Their proofs are universal mental judgements, whereas external existing things are individuated by their matter, so there is no certainty that the mental conforms to the external. Questions of natural philosophy do not matter for religion or livelihood ². Ask of each objection whether it is about what exists, what can be known, or what is useful.

The record preserves no passage in which Ibn Khaldun gives his reasons for the chapter. It says only that he devotes a chapter to refuting philosophy and showing the corruption of those who profess it, and that this is his own view ². What the records add comes from the Encyclopaedia of Islam, in the record of Ibn Khaldun: the article stresses his distrust of speculative reasoning and says that, after a radical criticism of knowledge, his refutation of philosophy was replaced by an empiricism tied to concrete facts ³. That is the article's reading, not a statement of his.

The chapter reaches the museum as a short summary of one passage of the Muqaddima, and the record states what it lacks: the replies of the philosophers, and the academic view ². A voice from inside the tradition is found in the record of Ibn Rushd. The Encyclopaedia of Islam says he criticised Ibn Sina's philosophy vigorously while respecting his medical work, and that in the Tahafut he rejects the emanationist principle that the One can give rise only to one ^{4 5}. The records do not say whether this meets Ibn Khaldun's first objection, and do not say that he had Ibn Rushd in view.

Which of Ibn Khaldun's three objections is the strongest, and why? Defend your choice against the most serious reply you can build: which part of that reply can the records above not supply?

• The refutation of philosophy: the chapter as the museum summarises it, with its note on what is missing.
• Ibn Khaldun: his life and the Encyclopaedia of Islam's account of his method.
• Ibn Rushd: a philosopher who criticised Ibn Sina, as the Encyclopaedia of Islam reports.

Read the refutation of philosophy. Write Ibn Khaldun's argument as premises and a conclusion, then name one place where a philosopher might reply.