Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The connection between what is habitually believed to be a cause and what is habitually believed to be an effect is not necessary, according to us.”
Al-Ghazālī · Islamic philosophy · Medieval · c. 1095; this English 1997
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a claim about necessity, not a denial that cotton burns when it meets fire. What people habitually call a cause and what they habitually call an effect are not, he says, connected by necessity. A competing reading hears a ban on natural science: if nothing necessitates anything, inquiry is theatre. He is opening a discussion of miracles and of God's decree. Habitually believed is doing the work. He is not saying there is no observed pattern. The sentence is the first move of discussion 17 of The Incoherence of the Philosophers, in Marmura's translation. Deliverance from Error, already here, is a different book and a different worry, about the standard of certainty. This sentence is about the link between events. It is unintelligible as a general scepticism about the everyday world.
Did Al-Ghazālī really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The opening sentence of the seventeenth discussion, in Marmura's English. 'According to us' marks his position against the philosophers he is answering. It is a translation of the Arabic. It is not the paraphrase of Deliverance from Error already in this library.
Where it comes from
The Incoherence of the Philosophers, discussion 17, Michael E. Marmura's translation
Approximate date: c. 1095; this English 1997.
How to use it
When someone in a lab meeting says a correlation must be the mechanism, this sentence asks whether the must is observed habit or a necessity that has been proved. It does not licence ignoring the correlation. A policy that treats every regular sequence as optional, because a medieval theologian doubted necessity, has left the discussion.
A mindset reading
Separate 'this follows every time we have looked' from 'this could not have been otherwise'. The habit is the one the sentence forces. Collapsing them is how a careful doubt becomes a reason to stop looking.
Understand the philosophy
Discussion 17 is the famous chapter on causality. The key phrase is not necessary, according to us. Marmura's translation is the standard modern English. Ibn Rushd answers the discussion in The Incoherence of the Incoherence. The card on certainty is from Deliverance from Error and is not this claim. The next card is the general principle that follows in the same discussion.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a claim about necessity, not a denial that cotton burns when it meets fire. What people habitually call a cause and what they habitually call an effect are not, he says, connected by necessity. A competing reading hears a ban on natural science: if nothing necessitates anything, inquiry is theatre. He is opening a discussion of miracles and of God's decree. Habitually believed is doing the work. He is not saying there is no observed pattern. The sentence is the first move of discussion 17 of The Incoherence of the Philosophers, in Marmura's translation. Deliverance from Error, already here, is a different book and a different worry, about the standard of certainty. This sentence is about the link between events. It is unintelligible as a general scepticism about the everyday world.
Did Al-Ghazālī really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The opening sentence of the seventeenth discussion, in Marmura's English. 'According to us' marks his position against the philosophers he is answering. It is a translation of the Arabic. It is not the paraphrase of Deliverance from Error already in this library.
Which work is it in?
The Incoherence of the Philosophers, discussion 17, Michael E. Marmura's translation Approximate date: c. 1095; this English 1997.