PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 5TH TO 12TH CENTURY:Al-Ghazali, Ibn-Rushd, Averroes

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 05

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 5TH TO 12TH CENTURY

Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali was a great philosopher/psychologist. His ideas hold a unique position in the

development of philosophy/psychology. Al-Ghazali was born in 1058AD and died in 1111AD. He studied

Greek philosophy gaining mastery over it, and then studied religion and acquired a vast knowledge on that

as well. Having a thorough knowledge of the subjects led Al-Ghazali to see a conflict between religion and

philosophy. This conflict could only been seen by someone who had a vast knowledge of both the fields

such as Al-Ghazali. The conclusion he drew, created so much stress and affected him so badly that he

became physically ill. He continued his study for more than ten years and after much reflection on the

subject, he was able to resolve the conflict for himself. He then gradually started to recover from his bad

health.

Al-Ghazali had a unique idea about the soul of human beings. He taught that the soul was like God

and said that "Allah has breathed His own spirit into man." This entailed the soul being a higher expression

of man's existence. Therefore, Al-Ghazali also differed from Aristotle on the concept of unity of body and

soul.

Another contribution of Al-Ghazali is that he distinguished between positive and negative virtues.

In his views:

Positive virtue is doing a good deed. For example if someone helps the poor that would be a

positive virtue.

And negative virtue is to avoid a bad deed. For example person avoids indulging into a criminal

act.

Related to his idea of the soul being the higher expression of man's existence, Al-Ghazali also

distinguished between three stages of being which are:

Lowest, the material world of existence

The second is the physical world

The third is the world of divine.

Al-Ghazali also gave a long list of vices such as hunger, sex, vice of speech, self assertion, love of wealth

and hypocrisy. The vices of hunger and sex are physical needs. The vice of speech is to use bad words or to

say such words which would harm someone. Another vice described by Al-Ghazali was a unique idea of self

assertion which means that being over assertive and trying to dominate others and not listening to what they

have to say. That is over asserting one's own beliefs and thoughts. The next is the vice of love of wealth.

According to Al-Ghazali like all other vices it makes a person forget about all moralities and values and he

pursue his desires blindly. The last vice described by Al-Ghazali is the vice of hypocrisy which means that a

person appears differently from what he actually is.

Al-Ghazali also described four kinds of love:

Self love

Love of a benefactor

Love of beauty

Love of harmonious interaction.

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Self love is the love that an individual has for himself while the love for a benefactor is the love that an

individual has for some one who takes care of his needs. For example the love for one's parents is the love

for a benefactor. Third is the love for beauty which is possessed by every individual. Man has innate sense

to love and admire beauty. This has been identified by Al-Ghazali. Last is the love for harmonious

interaction which is the love for association with people. It is another of man's instincts which has been

identified by Al-Ghazali.

One of Al-Ghazali's greatest contributions is that he proposed two kinds of selves:

Nafsay-Ammarah; the primitive self or the negative, bad self

And Nafsay-Mutminah; the satisfied self or positive good self.

Nafsay-Ammarah is original state of self in which man is dissatisfied. Nafsay-Mutminah is the satisfied self

when the individual has achieved his potentials and desires and gotten rid of the bad self.

According to Al-Ghazali, man can change and improve himself from Nafsay-Ammarah to Nafsay-

Mutiminah by doing the right things which according to him are six:

Masharaqa

This means to put oneself straight. When the person decides that he would change himself and

do those things only which are right or which are deemed right by the society.

Maraqaba

This means to guard oneself from evil and bad things.

Mahasaba

This means to criticize oneself for anything which is not good, which would ultimately lead to

the improvement of that habit or doing.

Maaqaba

This means to punish the self for the wrong doing and forcefully restraining the self from it.

Mujahida

This means to express the self in fully and properly and not keep anything hidden.

Maataba

This means to cleanse oneself of any bad deed or doing.

In view of these ways of self discipline Ghazali is considered by many as a psychotherapist.

Ibn-Rushd, Averroes

Averroes is regarded as one of the greatest philosopher/psychologist of the Middle Ages. He is also

known as Ibn-Rushd in Urdu. He was born in 1126AD and he died in 1198AD. Unlike some of the

previous philosopher/psychologists, he followed the Aristotelian tradition of observation and empiricism

and based his ideas upon logic, far removed from speculation and Socratic and Platonian way of gaining

knowledge by insight.

Averroes's views were different from that of Al-Ghazali and he held the view that soul is not

spiritual but material and mortal. He further stated that soul does not survive at death. Therefore he rejected

and ancient view of the soul being eternal and the body being mortal. That is what Socrates used as a basis

for his method of gaining knowledge by insight.

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Averroes divided soul into five categories:

1. Nutritive

The nutritive part of the soul is responsible for the growth and development.

2. Sensitive

The sensitive part of the soul is responsible for emotions and feelings.

3. Imaginative

The imaginative part of the soul is responsible for the thinking process of the individual.

4. Cognitive

This part is responsible for association of ideas and for the process of solving problems.

5. Appetitive

This part of the soul is responsible for bodily needs such as hunger thirst etc.

Averroes taught that animals gain knowledge by sense organs, whereas man does it by intellect and

knowledge gathered by intellect is the true and correct knowledge. Therefore his method of gaining

knowledge was a combination of the Socratic and the Aristotelian tradition where Socrates thought that

sensory organs were a hindrance to the acquisition of knowledge while Aristotle was of the view that

knowledge needs to be gathered through empiricism rather than looking inwards.

Averroes further asserted that when a change occurs in the world, knowledge also changes.

Therefore, knowledge is in a constant flux. Hence, man needs to constantly update his knowledge.

Averroes was of the opinion that all events have causes and denial of causes is denial of knowledge.

This is known as determinism. He concluded that knowledge could therefore be gained by looking at causes

of objects and events. In light of this theory, even accidents which apparently do not have a cause actually

have a cause. For example a car colliding into a tree has apparently no cause, but there has to be a cause for

the accident in the view of Averroes. The cause therefore may be that the car was being driven at a high

speed or the steering wheel was turned in the wrong direction.

Averroes practiced the Aristotelian way of observation and rejected speculation as a way of

acquiring knowledge avoiding unnecessary speculation even in religious matters. Later Europeans adopted

Averroes's ideas and rejected speculation which was the reason for their civilization to advance at a rapid

pace.

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