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Paper   IPM / Philosophy / 16390
School of Analytic Philosophy
  Title:   On the incompatibility of God's knowledge of particulars and the doctrine of divine immutability: towards a reform in Islamic theology
  Author(s):  Ebrahim Azadegan
  Status:   Published
  Journal: Religious Studies
  Year:  2020
  Pages:   1-18
  Supported by:  IPM
  Abstract:
Affirming that divine knowledge of occurrent changes among particulars is incompatible with the doctrine of divine immutability, this article seeks to resolve this tension by denying the latter. Reviewing this long-running debate, I first formalize the exchange between al-Ghazali and Avicenna on this topic, and then set out the ways in which contemporary Sadrāean philosophers have tried to resolve the incompatibility. I argue that none of the cited Sadrāean attempts to resolve the incompatibility between divine omniscience and immutability is successful. Then, by reference to certain principles drawn from Shia theology, I indicate how one might seek to reject the dogma of divine immutability. I conclude that by emancipating ourselves from that dogma, new horizons could be opened for Islamic philosophy, free from traditional Hellenistic constraints.


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