Ben Ahmed Fouad, Al-Qarawiyyine University, Dar El Hadith El Hassania Institution, Rabat
Ibn Rušd (d.595/1198) does not accept the efficacy and suitability of metaphor to discuss scientific and metaphysical subjects. Nevertheless, he sometimes praises metaphor – particularly as it appears in the Koran. This creates a puzzle regarding how to understand Ibn Rušd’s attitude toward metaphor. In my paper, I will consider the different ways in which Ibn Rušd evaluates metaphor in definitions, dialectical syllogisms, theological and scientific reasoning, poetry and rhetoric. It is particularly the last context that of rhetoric, which helps us understand Ibn Rušd’s embrace of rhetoric in the Koran. I will also show how such attitude by Ibn Rušd stands in between two other interesting positions of Ibn Sīna (d. 427/ 1037) and al-Gazālī (d. 505/ 1111).
Bio-data:
He is Professor at Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institution, Rabat. Morocco. His field of research is Islamic Philosophy and Theology with a specific interest in the philosophy, theology and logic of the Islamic West. He is a member of several associations such as SIEPM, Freiburg as well as a member of the bureau of SIHSPAI, Paris. He is a Fulbrighter and DAAD scholar. Among his many publications are:Ibn Ṭumlūs al-Faylasūfwa al-Ṭabīb. SīraBibliyugrafiyya (Ibn Ṭumlūs. A Bio-Bibliography) with an Introduction in English (Beirut-Algeria- Rabat-Tunisia: ManšurātḌifāf- Manšurāt al-ʾIḫtilāf- Dār al-ʾAmān-Kalima, 2017); ‘Three Masters and One Disciple: Ibn Ṭumlūs between Al-Farābī, al-Ġazālī, Ibn Rušd,’ In Andreas Speer and Thomas Jescke (eds.) Schüler und Meister, 39th KölnerMediaevistentagung (Berlin- Boston: De Gruyter, 2016): 537-556;Ibn Ṭumlūs,Books of the Dialectic and Sophistical Topics, edited, introduced (with an English Introduction) and annotated by F. Ben Ahmed (Beirut-Algeria- Rabat-Tunisia: ManšurātḌifāf- Manšurāt al-ʾIḫtilāf- Dār al-ʾAmān-Kalima, 2016).Manzilat al-TamṯīlfīFallsafat Ibn Rušd (Analogy and Paradigms in Averroes’s Philosophy) (Beirut-Algeria- Rabat, 2014); Averroes’s Analogies and Metaphors: from the Demonstration to the Rhetoric (TamṯilātwaIsti‘ārāt Ibn Rušd: min Manṭiq al-BurhānʾilāManṭiq al-Ḫaṭāba) (Beirut-Algeria- Rabat, 2012).