Din ve Felsefe Araştırmaları

Yazarlar: Zeynep İNAL

Konular:Felsefe

Anahtar Kelimeler:Religious language,Al-Farabi,Divine Simplicity,Imagination of God

Özet: Religious language is the language of religious texts that contain many transcendent contents, especially contents on God. The reason why this language is included in the field of philosophical inquiry is the search for the possibility of a meaningful conversation about God. The ontological difference between God and the man lies at the root of the problem of religious language, in which the relationship of language with metaphysical reality is examined. This difference has led philosophers to focus on the subject to form a holistic theory of religious language that includes answers to what is meant when certain predicates are attributed to God and hence, how religious teachings, orders, and prohibitions should be understood. One of the basic facts that determine the answers to the above questions on forming a holistic theory of religious language is religion and the other one is the imagination of God. Ninth century philosopher al-Fârâbi made explorations about the possibility of talking about God by grounding the first of these two phenomena on the relation of philosophy and religion and the second on the doctrine of divine simplicity. This study will discuss whether al-Fârâbi's statements can be accepted as a holistic theory of religious language. For this, first, al-Farabi's views on religion and his concept of God will be clarified. Secondly, the study will demonstrate that the philosopher's statements on these two issues are not compatible. It will claim that this incompatibility prevents approving of al-Farabi's statements as a holistic theory of religious language.

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