Der Philosoph als Autodidakt. Hayy ibn Yaqzan

The aim of this philosophically allegorical island novel by the Arab-Andalusian thinker Ibn Tufail is to defend philosophy as a rational form of knowledge. Ibn Tufail responded to the attacks of al-Ghazali, who questioned the philosophical (Aristotelian) methodology and its compatibility with the orthodoxy of Islam. This criticism is addressed in the main part of the treatise, where the rational structure of the philosophical canon of knowledge, appropriate to the natural disposition of humans, is presented, along with the demonstration that philosophical knowledge indeed aligns with the contents of revealed religion, and even better than the merely symbolic religion of the masses. At the same time, the turn towards mysticism made by al-Ghazali is incorporated, establishing immediate, intuitive experience as a form of knowledge that is equated with theoretical understanding, even elevated above it. Both paths, that of philosophy and Sufism, are intertwined. For this integration of Sufism into philosophy, the authority of Ibn Sina is invoked, attributing to him an esoteric-Sufi teaching under the title of "Oriental Wisdom." The treatise received significant attention in the religious-critical debates of the 18th century. It was rediscovered in 1952 by Ernst Bloch, who saw in Ibn Tufail's treatise a reinforcement of the Enlightenment's fundamental belief that humans do not need a faith beyond their reason.