Al Ghaza^li^ today

At an age when our minds are theatened by standardization and by flattened modes of thinkings (critics like Adorno and Horkheimer did long ago set off alarm bells) al-Ghaza^li^ intellectual life might be still on be seen as an advanced model of the autonomy in its kantian sense (see Casalino Pierluigi, Kant, "in poche righe", Ennepilibri). When it comes to critical thinkings, the battle cry the pundits of education in the 21 century, he is surely one of its disputed champions. Since his childhood, we are told in his semi-autobiography DELIVERANCE FROM ERROR, al-Ghaza^li^ (See Casalino Pierluigi, al-Ghaza^li^, on the web, casalinopierluigi.bloog.it, and on Imperia New Magazine, and on Asino Rosso) had grown inimical to the commonplace and conventional. With an inherently innate, "thirst for grasping the real meaning of things", al-Ghaza^li^ never ceded to a belief or practice unless it stood the test of epistemological certainly (DELIVERANCE from Error, 3). For al-Ghaza^li^, the path to truth necessarily passes by doubt (THE SCALE OF ACTION, 10). It is more or less the same lesson Socrates before him, and the Enlightenement figures such as Kant and Emerson after him, were keen to deliver: "Sapere aude!". Although we do not have to take it as far as al-Ghaza^li^ and Descartes did when they doubted not only their senses but also their reasoning faculties, their self-scrutiny and the taken-for-granted beliefs and practices should be insightful to us. A skeptical frame of mind is not always coterminous with wholesale rejection of tradition as we learn from al-Ghaza^li^ himself. What it should lead to, rather, is the conscious revaluation of one's sources of knowledge, and the audacitry to insulate oneself from conformity and the "slavish aping of parents and teachers" (DELIVERANCE, 3). An inperited belief in tradition does not come anywhere close to that which is re-thought and re-examined. The other lesson to be learnt from al-GGhaza^li^, in addition to his inherent hostility to "servile conformism and his restlessness with uncheked "inherited beliefs" is pedagogical. For him, critique is inextricably associated with an "a priori" deep knowledge of the thing, which is to be appoached critically. That was the stance the Proof of Islam took with regards to the main four intellectual strands with which he critically engaged in his time: theologians, philosophers, esoterists and Sufi. His scathing critique of metaphisical Greek philosophy in the "INCHOERENCE OF PHILOSOPHERS", to take just one famous example, was preceded by a two-years intensive study of philosophy, an endeavor which culminated in his book "THE INTENTIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS" were be succintly reported in an objective way the  thought of Plato (see also Ibn Rushd/Averroes and Plato by Casalino Pierluigi on the web, casalinopierluigi.bloog.it), Aristotle and other philosophers to prove that he is well-qualified to engage with their thoughts later on. Out of intellectrual integrity, al Ghaza^li^ (see on the web, Casalino Pierluigi, Giuseppe Celentano and al-Ghazha^li^) would apply himself hard to interirize the beliefs and vies of the epistemological "other". The moral, or say academic, obligation to uphold judgment until one puts his feet in the shoes of other is a frame of mind that almost becomes a rare commodity in our times. Finally, for al-Ghaza^li^, skepticism is never a gratuitous epistemological exercise. In a modern world that is obsessively preoccupied by outward manifestations of success, we tend to lose the sense of what constitutes the essence of our humanity. The life of al-Ghaza^li^ is therefore those of us who look for balance and inner place. For  al-Ghaza^li^, the alchemy of happiness is simple and clear: the closer you are from God, the less enslaved, and therefore, the more autonomous you become.
Casalino Pierluigi, on Dec 6th November, 2013