Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
The Refutation of the Logicians (al-Radd ʿala al-mantiqiyyin)
Definitions cannot grasp essences, universals exist only in the mind, and the syllogism gives no knowledge that could not be had without it.
Introduction
A long Arabic treatise that Ibn Taymiyya began during his house arrest in Alexandria (1309–10) and completed in Damascus. It attacks the two pillars of Aristotelian logic as taught by Avicenna and his successors: definition, which claims to grasp essences, and the syllogism, which claims to produce new certain knowledge. Ibn Taymiyya argues that the distinction between essential and accidental attributes is arbitrary, that universals exist only in the mind, and that syllogistic proof adds nothing that sound reasoning could not reach by other means. An abridgement by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti was translated into English by Wael Hallaq as Ibn Taymiyya against the Greek Logicians (1993). The book is one of the most thorough critiques of Aristotelian logic written in the Middle Ages.
Connections
Criticizes
- Organonc. 350 BCE · Aristotle
- The Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa)c. 1027 · Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
More works by Ibn Taymiyya
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made