Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
The philosophers contradict themselves on twenty crucial points — and on three of them (the eternity of the world, divine knowledge of particulars, bodily resurrection) they contradict the Quran
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Incoherence of the Philosophers |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Discrete |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
Al-Ghazālī defends the createdness of time against the Avicennan-Aristotelian eternal-world doctrine. The kalām cosmological argument turns on temporal finitude.
Space
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
Standard medieval cosmology. The atomism of Ashʿarite kalām treats space as discrete grids of atomic positions.
Matter
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
Ashʿarite kalām atomism treats matter as discrete occasionally-re-created atoms. The Incoherence's occasionalist position runs in parallel.
Observer
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
The Ghazalian observer is the Muslim believer whose rational engagement with philosophy must be subordinated to revealed truth. Passive in the sense that real causal power belongs to God alone; active in consenting to and seeking God.
Energy
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
God's direct activity is the only real causal power. Energy as "natural force" is denied; what appears as natural energetics is the customary pattern of God's acts.
Information
The Incoherence of the Philosophers
God's knowledge is total, including of particulars (against the Avicennan position that God knows only universals). Personal information is conserved across death; bodily resurrection is real.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Averroes's Tahāfut al-Tahāfut is a point-by-point rebuttal of the Incoherence; the resulting debate is one of the central exchanges in medieval philosophy. Whether al-Ghazālī's position is itself a rigorous philosophical position or a fideist deconstruction of philosophy has been disputed. Modern scholarship (Marmura, Frank Griffel) generally defends the work's philosophical seriousness.