Ibn Rushd, Decisive Treatise

Posted: Wed, Feb 11, 2026

Today

  • Talk through Plato & Aristotle
  • Time travel! Introduce Ibn Rushed & the Arabic-Latin translation movement

Between reason and faith

A specific framing: Philosophy represents reason/wisdom/truth, and religion faith.

Ibn Rushd [Averroes] (1126–1198 CE): Not only does philosophy not conflict with sharīʿah [Law], but Law requires the study of philosophy. [Anika, Sofia, Xiaojing]

Reconciling Law and philosophy

Three classes of people, three paths to taṣdīq [assent]:

  • Those capable of demonstrative reasoning (logic): The philosophers. [Candence, Ting]
  • Those capable of dialectical reasoning.
  • Those restricted to rhetorical versions of truth: The masses.

What if a conclusion of demonstrative reasoning contradicts the apparent meaning of the Qur’an?

  • Ibn Rushd, quoting Aristotle: “truth does not contradict truth.”
    • Truth in philosophy does not conflict with truth in Law.
    • In cases of apparent conflict, philosophy is uncovering an “inner” meaning of the Qur’an, which admits of allegorical interpretation.
  • Leo Strauss: Exoteric vs. esoteric interpretations of a classical text.
    • Exoteric: Surface meaning, accessible,
    • Esoteric: Hidden meaning, safeguarded.
  • Three kinds of passages in the Qur’an (§ 39).
  • Those not capable of demonstrative reasoning must be protected from esoteric readings. [Zohia, Hyunsung, Lucy, Sofia]

How does this work? The creation/eternity controversy: Did God create the universe at a particular moment in time, or has the universe always existed (§§ 32ff)?

  • The philosophers, following Aristotle: Eternity.
  • The theologians: Creation.
  • Qur’an: “He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His throne was on the water.”
    • There was water and a throne before the universe was created? No, that’s just a metaphorical/rhetorical description.
    • Ibn Rushd: A created universe could have always existed? Or, an eternal universe could have been brought into existence?
      • Time does not precede creation; the universe and the creator are co-eternal (§ 33).

What is Ibn Rushd really saying? Is this in fact a denial of the tension between philosophy and religion, or affirmation of it in favor of philosophy? [Lucy]