al-Radd ʿalā al-manṭiqiyyīn

Ibn Taymiyya's critique of Aristotelian logic and of the Muslim thinkers who used it, written, by his own account, after a visit from a group of philosophers while he was imprisoned in Alexandria. After an introduction, its first part attacks the theory of definition (ḥadd): he argues that the claim that concepts are only gained through definitions is unproven, and that definitions distinguish things rather than convey their essence. The second part attacks the claim that assent is only gained through the syllogism, arguing for other routes to knowledge and against the reality of universals outside the mind. It is counted among the most thorough critiques of formal logic in Islamic thought, written in the language of logic itself; al-Suyūṭī abridged it, and a separate Naqḍ al-manṭiq (Cairo 1951) seems to be a compilation of his remarks on logic from other works.

Draft · awaiting review by a qualified teacher