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During the history of kalām, scholars attempted to define knowledge. However, their definitions were criticized in different aspects. As the definition theory proposed by the Peripatetics was incorporated into kalām, asserting a complete definition of knowledge turned to be a more difficult task. Discerning the problems one faced in defining knowledge, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī argued its indefinability by asserting that it’s self-evident. As a result of the influence exerted by ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī and Sayyid Sharīf al-Jurjānī who considered knowledge to be definable, it has been assumed in the literature that the indefinability of knowledge because of its being obivous is exclusive to al-Rāzī. However, along with expressing that knowledge is indefinable, Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī claimed that this view was adopted by the majority of the verifiers ( muḥaqqiqūn ). In this respect, he presents the available definitions of knowledge as description ( taʿrīf ), instead of definition ( ḥadd ), and did not need to criticize them on the basis of the conditions of theory of definition. According to him, these descriptions are expressions for terminological ( iṣtilāhī ) meanings scholars ascribed to knowledge in their disciplines, that had been assigned as corresponding to its explicit meaning in language. The difference between al-Ījī`s and al-Taftāzānī`s approaches in this matter manifested itself in the first chapters of their al-Mawāqif and Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid , respectively. This study examines comparatively how al-Taftāzānī received and commented on the previous literature he had inherited regarding the definitions of knowledge. It also deals with how he constructed his view on the basis of this comment. |
