Saadya on Necessary Knowledge

Most Muslim and Jewish Mutakallimūn accepted the definition of necessary knowledge as opposed to inferential knowledge, with one remarkable exception, namely, Saadya’s problematic use of this term. He characterized some type of mediate knowledge as “necessary knowledge” and accordingly introduced a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xiuyuan Dong, Abd-Salam Memet-Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Religions
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/4/453
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Most Muslim and Jewish Mutakallimūn accepted the definition of necessary knowledge as opposed to inferential knowledge, with one remarkable exception, namely, Saadya’s problematic use of this term. He characterized some type of mediate knowledge as “necessary knowledge” and accordingly introduced a second-order necessary knowledge that is necessarily concomitant of the original one. This move may have marked a synthesis of the two main epistemological trends (classical intellectualism and analytical empiricism) at the time.
ISSN:2077-1444