name this school of Islamic thought:

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... maintains that God interferes at every moment to re-create the world, and argues that it is futile to be- lieve in the existence of natural laws. ...

i've been trying to remember its name for weeks now, and this one JSTOR article that i can't view is the closest thing i can get...

save me!

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:01 (eighteen years ago)

and hey, if you have JSTOR access, here's the url: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-7438(199302)25%3A1%3C174%3AIASROA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:01 (eighteen years ago)

not a broken link

email me the review if you get it!

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:02 (eighteen years ago)

I'm on it...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:06 (eighteen years ago)

i found my old notes: occasionalism

but i would still appreciate that article, ned! =)

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:07 (eighteen years ago)

i think it's a beautiful idea

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:08 (eighteen years ago)

I don't think I'll be able to send the article as such, but the quote apparently refers to a division between the Mutazilites, a more rational school of thought, and the 'fatalistic Asharites,' with the 11th century writer al-Ghazzali being the writer who 'maintains' per the quote above.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:11 (eighteen years ago)

It seems to be the "fatalistic Ash-arites" (the hyphen is a letter that looks like a superscripted 'c', but I don't know what that means). The pertinent bit is "the anti-rational trend culminated, according to Hoodbhoy, in the work of the 11th century al-Ghazzali who denies causality, maintains that God interferes at every moment to re-create the world, and argues that it is futile to believe in the existence of natural laws."

x-posts, gah.

― emil.y (emil.y), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:17 (eighteen years ago)

Does the odd letter mean nothing, then?

― emil.y (emil.y), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:18 (eighteen years ago)

it's really not a beautiful idea, the other quote associated with this is something like: when you put a piece of cloth into a flame, it is not the heat which causes it to turn brown, but God. sorry, no!

incidentally, the same idea pops up in american fundamentalism:

http://www.harpers.org/ThroughAGlassDarkly-12838838.html

The cause behind every effect, says fundamentalist science, is God. Even the inexorable facts of math are subject to His decree, as explained in homeschooling texts such as Mathematics: Is God Silent? Two plus two is four because God says so. If He chose, it could just as easily be five.

― geoff (gcannon), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:19 (eighteen years ago)

And also, I studied occasionalism, which is very similar, yes, but surely that's not naming the Islamic school of thought, but rather the Christian version?

― emil.y (emil.y), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:20 (eighteen years ago)

xpost yes.

that letter = "h" i think

― geoff (gcannon), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:23 (eighteen years ago)

beautiful doesn't always equal true, geoff

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:27 (eighteen years ago)

also, islam had the idea before christianity, but it was only named after the christians came up with it.

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:28 (eighteen years ago)

i think

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:29 (eighteen years ago)

I don't like occasionalism, either. Nor, although I love Berkeley, do I like the esse est percipi get-out clause wherein things constantly exist because God perceives them. Bah humbug.

(I wasn't suggesting it was a Christian idea, just that 'occasionalism' was quite clearly not an Islamic name for it... but fair enough if they didn't define it in such a way.)

― emil.y (emil.y), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:29 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, i just wanted to quote that harper's article because it scared the shit out of me!

― geoff (gcannon), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:40 (eighteen years ago)

lfam, here's a pdf of the article.

― LL cool ranch (Matt Chesnut), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:47 (eighteen years ago)

thanks!

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 01:52 (eighteen years ago)

No problem. Anyone else need anything from the JSTOR?

― LL cool ranch (Matt Chesnut), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:00 (eighteen years ago)

your username and password

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:07 (eighteen years ago)

That's the most insane thing I've ever seen related to religion.
And my brother-in-law is (and thus to a degree niece and nephew are) Catholic.

― Lukewarm Watery G. Tornado Is Sicker Than You (The GZeus), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:15 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, those catholics are wild.

― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:19 (eighteen years ago)

some of my best friends are catholic

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:20 (eighteen years ago)

That's the most insane thing I've ever seen related to religion.
http://www.themiddleeastnow.com/images/syrianembassy.jpg

― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:20 (eighteen years ago)

i smell a paper due tomorrow at 9am

― the kwisatz bacharach (sanskrit), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:20 (eighteen years ago)

Some of my best Mes were catholic 'til they hit puberty.

― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 02:21 (eighteen years ago)

XXpost
Buh?
That's violent and irrational.
But thinking that any anumber of measured events and effects, proven scientific experients etc. are all totally false...That's utter madness.

― Lukewarm Watery G. Tornado Is Sicker Than You (The GZeus), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 03:46 (eighteen years ago)

haha sanskrit... i was studying islamic art last year. i'm not even in school right now.

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 03:51 (eighteen years ago)

i never wrote about occasionalism OR muqarnas although it would have been fun, but it was my professor's specialty. i didn't need the extra scrutiny.

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 03:52 (eighteen years ago)

i just really like islamic architecture, that's all.

― friday on the porch (lfam), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 03:53 (eighteen years ago)

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