Logic in Islamic philosophy

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Early

Arabic: منطق manṭiq "speech, eloquence") in Kalam (Islamic scholasticism).[1]
However, with the rise of the
Mu'tazili philosophers, who highly valued Aristotle's Organon, this approach was displaced by the older ideas from Hellenistic philosophy.[citation needed
] The works of al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Ghazali and other Muslim logicians who often criticized and corrected Aristotelian logic and introduced their own forms of logic, also played a central role in the subsequent development of European logic during the Renaissance.[2]

According to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

"For the Islamic philosophers, logic included not only the study of formal patterns of

propositions and syllogisms
as formulated in Aristotle's Categories, De interpretatione and Prior Analytics. In the spirit of Aristotle, they considered the syllogism to be the form to which all rational argumentation could be reduced, and they regarded syllogistic theory as the focal point of logic. Even poetics was considered as a syllogistic art in some fashion by most of the major Islamic Aristotelians."

Important developments made by Muslim logicians included the development of "Avicennian logic" as a replacement of Aristotelian logic.

isnad or "backing",[3][4] and the development of a scientific method of open inquiry to disprove claims, the ijtihad, which could be generally applied to many types of questions.[5][6][7][8]

Islamic law and theology

Early forms of analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning and categorical syllogism were introduced in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Sharia (Islamic law) and Kalam (Islamic theology) from the 7th century with the process of Qiyas, before the Arabic translations of Aristotle's works. Later during the Islamic Golden Age, there was a logical debate among Islamic philosophers, logicians and theologians over whether the term Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning or categorical syllogism. Some Islamic scholars argued that Qiyas refers to inductive reasoning, which Ibn Hazm (994-1064) disagreed with, arguing that Qiyas does not refer to inductive reasoning, but refers to categorical syllogism in a real sense and analogical reasoning in a metaphorical sense. On the other hand, al-Ghazali (1058–1111) and Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi (1147-1223) argued that Qiyas refers to analogical reasoning in a real sense and categorical syllogism in a metaphorical sense. Other Islamic scholars at the time, however, argued that the term Qiyas refers to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in a real sense.[9]

Aristotelian logic

The first original Arabic writings on logic were produced by

proof
".

Averroes (1126–98) was the last major logician from al-Andalus, who wrote the most elaborate commentaries on Aristotelian logic.[11]

Avicennian logic

A drawing of Avicenna from 1271

Avicenna (980–1037) developed his own system of logic known as "Avicennian logic" as an alternative to Aristotelian logic. By the 12th century, Avicennian logic had replaced Aristotelian logic as the dominant system of logic in the Islamic world.[12][13]

The first criticisms of Aristotelian logic were written by Avicenna, who produced independent treatises on logic rather than commentaries. He criticized the logical school of Baghdad for their devotion to Aristotle at the time. He investigated the theory of

propositions, and developed an original theory on "temporal modal" syllogism. Its premises included modifiers
such as "at all times", "at most times", and "at some time".

While Avicenna often relied on deductive reasoning in philosophy, he used a different approach in medicine. Avicenna contributed inventively to the development of inductive logic, which he used to pioneer the idea of a syndrome. In his medical writings, Avicenna was the first to describe the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method.[14]

Ibn Hazm (994–1064) wrote the Scope of Logic, in which he stressed on the importance of sense perception as a source of knowledge.[15] Al-Ghazali (Algazel) (1058–1111) had an important influence on the use of logic in theology, making use of Avicennian logic in Kalam.

Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), the Ar-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin (Refutation of Greek Logicians), where he argued against the usefulness, though not the validity, of the syllogism[16] and in favour of inductive reasoning.[17]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. ^ Al-Shafi'i, al-Risala, Bulaq, 1321; ed. Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, Cairo, 1940 (ed. Shakir), 55
  3. ^ Schacht, Joseph (1959) [1950]. The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. Oxford University Press. pp. 37–8.
  4. from the original on 10 March 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  5. .
  6. ^ Mutahhari, Murtada (2 March 2013). "The Principles of Ijtihad in Islam". Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  7. .
  8. .
  9. ^ History of logic: Arabic logic, Encyclopædia Britannica.
  10. . Retrieved September 28, 2023.
  11. ^ I. M. Bochenski (1961), "On the history of the history of logic", A history of formal logic, pp. 4–10. Translated by I. Thomas, Notre Dame, Indiana University Press. (cf. Ancient Islamic (Arabic and Persian) Logic and Ontology)
  12. ^ Strobino, Riccardo (August 15, 2018). "Ibn Sina's Logic". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition). Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  13. .
  14. ^ a b Science and Muslim Scientists Archived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine, Islam Herald.
  15. ^ Iqbal, Muhammad (1930), "The Spirit of Muslim Culture", The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, retrieved 2008-01-25

Bibliography

External links