İbn-i Rüşd ve Spinoza'da Felsefe ve Din İlişkisi

Abstract

This dissertation aims to provide the historical path of the discussion of the relationship between religion and philosophy, a topic many philosophers were interested in throughout the history of philosophy, and particularly how Ibn Rushd and Spinoza approached and studied this relationship. For this purpose, I present a general framework about how the relationship between religion and philosophy was discussed within the history of Islamic and Christian philosophy, then focus on how these two philosophers in particular studied this issue and determine what they have in common and where they differ. The relationship between religion and philosophycan be expressed in three ways: 1) Embracing religion and rejecting philosophy, which is the attitude of the clergy. 2) Accepting philosophy and rejecting religion, which is the attitude of irreligious philosophers. 3) Efforts to reconcile philosophy and religion, which is the attitude many philosophers try to display for various reasons. The attitude of Ibn Rushd and Spinoza can be classified as this third form of attitude. Both tried to reconcile religion and philosophy and the reasons that lead them to display this attitude can be explained as follows: In Ibn Rushd’s time, the clergy issued fatwas that deemed philosophy, especially Aristotelian philosophy, as unlawful. Therefore, Ibn Rushd tried to reconcile religionand philosophyby explaining that they are not opposite and religion requires philosophical thinking;that philosophy is not for everyone but a special groupand it is for those who have natural intelligence.Ibn Rushd tried to convince them with this approach in order to ensure that philosophers could be free in their studies, especially regardingAristotelian philosophy. Indeed, Ibn Rushd believed that Aristotelian philosophy was the absolute truth.Spinoza was oppressed by Jewish and Christian fanaticsduring the Renaissance, even though he lived under a republican rule. Therefore, he preferred to use medieval terminology to hide his real opinions from everyone but philosophers and scholars. He said that the common goal of religion and philosophy is to reach happiness, but the path of philosophy is different from that of religion, and while the path of philosophy is reason and wisdom, the path of religion is piety and obedience.