God and Impossibility: A Classical Ashʿarī Perspective
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Abdurrahman Ali Mihirig
Abstract
One of Abu’l- Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī’s peculiar views in theology is that God is visible while also maintaining that God is not a physical being. Meantime, his detractors hold these two views to be inconsistent: the corporealists affirmed God is visible because God is physical, while the Muʿtazila denied God is visible because God is not physical. In arguing for the possibility of God’s vision, Ashʿarī first offers an inventory of eight principles in determining what is impossible for God then he denies that any one of them is entailed by vision. This article proposes to offer a philosophical investigation into his notion of the impossible and how it applies to some questions in theology, namely, the question of omnipotence and the question of the vision of God. It is divided into four main sections: (1) the notion of the impossible (muḥāl) in classical kalām; (2) the linguistic origins of the theory of the impossible in the grammarian Sībawayhi; (3) an investigation into the impossible and divine omnipotence; (4) an investigation into the possibility of the vision of God.
Abstract
One of Abu’l- Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī’s peculiar views in theology is that God is visible while also maintaining that God is not a physical being. Meantime, his detractors hold these two views to be inconsistent: the corporealists affirmed God is visible because God is physical, while the Muʿtazila denied God is visible because God is not physical. In arguing for the possibility of God’s vision, Ashʿarī first offers an inventory of eight principles in determining what is impossible for God then he denies that any one of them is entailed by vision. This article proposes to offer a philosophical investigation into his notion of the impossible and how it applies to some questions in theology, namely, the question of omnipotence and the question of the vision of God. It is divided into four main sections: (1) the notion of the impossible (muḥāl) in classical kalām; (2) the linguistic origins of the theory of the impossible in the grammarian Sībawayhi; (3) an investigation into the impossible and divine omnipotence; (4) an investigation into the possibility of the vision of God.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Dedication V
- Contents VII
- Introduction: Facing Contradiction in the Absolute 1
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Part I : Asian Philosophy
- Transcendental Contradictions: The Spectre of Non-Being in Early to Middle Brāhmanic-Hindu Thought-System 9
- “It is Distant, it is Near” – Vedāntic Hindu Visions of Divine Contradictions 39
- Contradictions and Certainty: The Mīmāṃsā Defense of the Authorless Veda 61
- Buddhism, Emptiness, and Paradox 77
- All in One Mind. Huayan’s Holistic Panbuddhism 89
- Heidegger and Dōgen on the Ineffable 105
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Part II : Christian Philosophy
- Contradiction and God Between Neoplatonism and the Byzantine Tradition: Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Nicholas of Methone 137
- The Ways God Overcomes Contradictions in Human Understanding: Nicholas of Cusa 169
- Identity and non-Identity of the Human Soul with God in Meister Eckhart’s Metaphysical Mysticism 185
- Hegel’s Absolute from a Logical Point of View 211
- The One, the Many, and the Trinity: A Dialetheist Response to the Trinitarian Contradiction 221
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Part III: Jewish and Islamic Philosophy
- “Laud and praise Him justly and uprightly, not by attributing to Him exaggerations and absurdities”: God and logic in Jewish thought 249
- On Ayin, or the Divine Nothing 269
- Transcendence vs. Immanence in Jewish Philosophy and Poetry 289
- God’s attributes; Are aḥwāl contradictory? 297
- God and Impossibility: A Classical Ashʿarī Perspective 311
- Is Being Contradictory? — Ibn al-ʿArabī and the Principle of Non-Contradiction 347
- Contributors
- Names Index
- Topic Index
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Dedication V
- Contents VII
- Introduction: Facing Contradiction in the Absolute 1
-
Part I : Asian Philosophy
- Transcendental Contradictions: The Spectre of Non-Being in Early to Middle Brāhmanic-Hindu Thought-System 9
- “It is Distant, it is Near” – Vedāntic Hindu Visions of Divine Contradictions 39
- Contradictions and Certainty: The Mīmāṃsā Defense of the Authorless Veda 61
- Buddhism, Emptiness, and Paradox 77
- All in One Mind. Huayan’s Holistic Panbuddhism 89
- Heidegger and Dōgen on the Ineffable 105
-
Part II : Christian Philosophy
- Contradiction and God Between Neoplatonism and the Byzantine Tradition: Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Nicholas of Methone 137
- The Ways God Overcomes Contradictions in Human Understanding: Nicholas of Cusa 169
- Identity and non-Identity of the Human Soul with God in Meister Eckhart’s Metaphysical Mysticism 185
- Hegel’s Absolute from a Logical Point of View 211
- The One, the Many, and the Trinity: A Dialetheist Response to the Trinitarian Contradiction 221
-
Part III: Jewish and Islamic Philosophy
- “Laud and praise Him justly and uprightly, not by attributing to Him exaggerations and absurdities”: God and logic in Jewish thought 249
- On Ayin, or the Divine Nothing 269
- Transcendence vs. Immanence in Jewish Philosophy and Poetry 289
- God’s attributes; Are aḥwāl contradictory? 297
- God and Impossibility: A Classical Ashʿarī Perspective 311
- Is Being Contradictory? — Ibn al-ʿArabī and the Principle of Non-Contradiction 347
- Contributors
- Names Index
- Topic Index
