THE IMPACT OF IBN SĪNĀ'S CRITIQUE OF ATOMISM ON SUBSEQUENT KALĀM DISCUSSIONS OF ATOMISM

Abstract

Abstract Kalām atomism stood in opposition to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of the falāsifa . In the Physics of the Shifā' , Ibn Sīnā undertook a detailed refutation of kalām atomism through several arguments. These arguments elicited a muted response from al-Ghazālī, whose commitment to kalām was minimal at best. A more forceful response seems to have been offered by al-Shahrastānī but its details remain sketchy due to the lack of surviving sources. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, whose intellectual development went through a phase of commitment to Avicennism and thereby a vigorous endorsement of Ibn Sīnā's anti-atomist arguments followed by a phase of a critical engagement with Avicennism, provides a detailed rebuttal to Ibn Sīnā's arguments in addition to constructing novel arguments in defense of kalām atomism.

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