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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In three pages this paper critically examines Ghazali’s contributions to philosophy. Five sources are listed in the bibliography.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGghazali.rtf
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is from the East or hails from the West. Some scholars describe al-Ghazalis philosophical contributions as "Arab Neoplatonism," while others claim his legacy can be found in his criticism
of philosophy (Popkin 163). Still others praise his foray into Sufi mysticism, and claim his introduction of Sufism to an international audience is where his philosophical laurels rest (Popkin
163). Born Abu ?amid Mu?ammad ibn Mu?ammad al-Ghazali in the city of Tus in 1058, his family were prominent members of the Persian intelligentsia. After a career as
an Islamic law lecturer, al-Ghazali began focusing upon Islamic theology, concentrating on philosophical distinctions "between the acceptable and the unacceptable" (Leaman 25). An early follower of the Asharite school
of theology, al-Ghazali was a proponent of occasionalism (a theory of philosophy that stated substances that are created cannot be causes; only God can be a direct cause); ethical subjectivism
(a philosophy that individuals can hold certain moral precepts regardless of circumstances); and atomism (a Greek natural philosophy that stated the world was comprised of atoms - something or movable
and unchanging clusters of matter - and void, which is nothing) (Leaman 25). According to the Asharites, all actions originate with God. As far as al-Ghazali was concerned,
"God can do anything he wants, he can punish virtuous people and reward the wicked, he is under no obligation at all to his creatures" (Leaman 25). As a defense
of his Islamic traditions, al-Ghazali began studying the ancient Greek philosophers extensively. In his text Intentions of the Philosophers, he attempts to qualify what the objectives of various philosophers
were, but in Incoherence of the Philosophers, he refutes the Neoplatonic and Aristotelian natural reality that had once intrigued him (Leaman 25). A deep crisis of the spirit caused
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