Al-Kindi's Method in Reconciling Religion and Philosophy: Background and Concepts


Koroglu B.

BEYTULHIKME-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, cilt.11, sa.2, ss.895-928, 2021 (ESCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 11 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2021
  • Doi Numarası: 10.18491/beytulhikme.1811
  • Dergi Adı: BEYTULHIKME-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), Index Islamicus, Philosopher's Index, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.895-928
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: God, creation, emanation, creation ex nihilo, first cause, soul, Neo-Platonism
  • İnönü Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

This article aims to outline al-Kindi's contribution in reconciling the disciplines of religion and philosophy, a perennial concern that has shaped the character of the tradition of Islamic philosophy since his time. The article's central thesis demonstrates that al-Kindi devoted a significant amount of attention to attempting to reconcile religion and philosophy by actively using the rich scientific and philosophical heritage before him. He used his scientific knowledge from astronomy, mathematics, and physics to the greatest possible extent to preserve the internal consistency of his philosophy on the one hand and construct a sophisticated philosophical system that does not force creedal acceptance on the other. The main axis of the article concerns the notions of God's oneness, the creation of the universe, function of celestial bodies, source of the soul and its fate after leaving the body - which, in particular, forms the bedrock of al-Kindi's thesis of reconciliation. While engaging in the aforementioned points of discussion, we have tried to show that although al-Kindi benefited from the rich philosophical accumulation of former scientific traditions, as well as from the concepts, theories and methods of Pythagoreanism, Plato, Aristotle, New Pythagoreanism and Neo-Platonism in enriching his system, he always tried to harmonize his philosophy with Islamic Creed.