Deliverance from Error

Oct 17,2010
Deliverance from Error
Al Ghazali was a Persian philosopher, born in 1058. He believed in finding out “how things really are” (311). Realizing that Christian youths always became Christians, and Jewish youths to be Jewish, etc, he came to believe that there is an original nature to men, and a nature taught by experience and authorities. He became inspired to distinguish between this original nature and our taught nature. Al Ghazali’s mission wished to discover what knowledge really is. He states that certain knowledge is that which is undoubtedly true, with no chance of falsity.
Upon investigation, he discovered two main types of knowledge: sensory and necessary truths. He comes to the decision that there is only one good way to test these sources, and that is to try to bring them into doubt (as any knowledge that CAN be doubted must be, as knowledge cannot be certain unless it is infallible). He first looks at the senses, and perception. He gives an example stating that shadows that appear to be still will be in a different position a few hours later. He also says that although the sun looks small, it is in fact large. These examples show that the senses deceive us, and therefore cannot be trusted.
After removing his trust in the senses, Al Ghazali turns to intellectual truths, such as ten is more than three, and that nothing can exist and also not exist. Much like the senses were knocked out by intellect, he believes that intellect may in fact be knocked out by something greater. Just because no super intellect has shown itself does not mean it does not exist. When we are asleep, we do not commonly know we are sleeping. When you wake, you realize you were simply dreaming, and that your dreams were false. Could we not be in a dream state now, and one day awake to a more real reality? We would not know until we “woke up”. Some Sufi mystics claim to have reached this level through meditation. Al Ghazali believes that death may be what releases...