Gazzâlî-Râzî Geleneğine Mensup Bir Düşünür Olarak İbn Haldûn’da Nedenselliğin Doğası
The Nature of Causality in Ibn Khaldūn as a Thinker Within the Ghazālī - Rāzī Tradition

Summary/Abstract: Purpose: Philosophical thought, which emerges from reflection upon being and becoming, may in one respect be defined as “the pursuit of knowledge of causes” in one respect. Debate on causality and causation in philosophy and kalām have played a decisive role in comprehension of reality, ranging from physics to metaphysics, from human will and actions to functioning of the historical processes. Throughout history, different theories of causality have been developed in in accordance with different conceptions of God, being, these theories have sought to make sense of change in the natural world. With Ibn Khaldūn, the domain of historical-social realm gaining autonomy under the name of ʿIlm al-ʿUmrān, became the object of systematic knowledge, and historical events began to be interpreted under a form of causal principle. This study aims to demostrate that the of kalām philosophy, continuing in along the Ghazālī – Rāzīan line, exercised a significant influence on Ibn Khaldūn’s understanding of being, knowledge, and history. Method: As the research required a qualitative method, data was collected through document analysis, and the research problem was presented with an interpretive approach. I this study, rather than analyzing individual components, the focus was on identifying patterns to ascertain the underlyinginfluence on Ibn Khaldūn’s thought. The objective of this study was to identify general truths that could be proven rather than definitive conclusions, using an inductive approach. As qualitative studies require the establishment of a theoretical framework to underping the research, an initial examination of the theoretical framework was conducted. This encompassed theoretical framework of Ibn Khaldūn’s views on knowledge and causality, the Aristotelian-Ibn Sīnā philosophy, and the Ghazālī-Rāzī tradition's understanding of existence and knowledge. In the subsequent stage, of the investigation, the location of Ibn Khaldūn's perspective on causality within the established framework was the subject of deliberation. Findings: it was evident that Ibn Khaldūn employed the language of Aristotelian-Ibn Sīnā’s classical metaphysics, while concurrently issuing substantial critiques of prevailing conceptions of existence and knowledge. These criticisms demostrate that, as a thinker belonging to the Ghazālī- Rāzī tradition, he subscribed to the doctrine of historical causality as opposed to ontic-cosmic causality. He endeavoured to formulate general and probable laws as oppsed to universal and certain ones. This conclusion also implies that, despite all modernization efforts undertaken today, Ibn Khaldūn remains one of the great synthesizers of medieval Islamic thought. Conclusion: In contrast to all endeavours towards ‘modernization’, this study aims to evaluate Ibn Khaldūn within context of his own intellectual tradition. In this context, Ibn Khaldūn, as a historian thinking within the perfected metaphysics of kalam in al-Razi, possesses the idea of “possible history.” Conversely, it can be argued that while developing his philosophy of historical change, he produced thought within the realist and inductive world of kalām. It is the contention of the present study that the historical thought, as a thinker of a period of crisis, has much to offer to the Islamic world, which is currently experiencing a similar decline. In essence, it is evident that historical transformations cannot be evaluated in isolation that is to say, in human context. Consecuently, a valid understanding of history cannot be established, and life experience cannot be reconstructed. Within this theoretical framework, the Introduction proposes a human-centered understanding of history and suggests ways to reconstruct life. Therefore, it is imperative to comprehend Ibn Khaldūn within the context of his own tradition, eschewing the conventional orientalist approach.

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