About limitations of intellect: Ibn Khaldūn’s criticism of Philosophy

Abstract

UDK: 28-1 Ibn Haldūn
UDK: 1 Ibn Haldūn

In this paper, the author presents the thoughts of Ibn Khaldun (d. in1406), a renowned scholar in the field of philosophy of history with regards to philosophy. In his study of history he relied primarily on intellect, whereas in his contemplation on philosophy, he underlined its cognitive limitations.  Ibn Khaldun’s division of philosophy is presented here in the first part of the article. The following is his brief historical review of the development of philosophy and its path toward the Islamic world. A major part of the article is dedicated to Ibn Khaldun’s criticism of philosophy. The final part stresses that the main point of Ibn Khaldun’s critique of philosophers is their lack of understanding that the being surpasses philosophical knowledge. However, he recognizes logic as the most plausible form of philosophical thinking. The fact that he underlined the limitations of reason does not mean he defied the reason, rather he pointed out that it should be employed critically.  It was not philosophical thinking that Ibn Khaldūn challenged by using religious texts, he rather argued that the intellect cannot prove metaphysical reality, which, nonetheless, cannot be the argument to state that he objected to reason as the source of knowledge.