Abstract:

Many of the Muslim thinkers have criticized philosophy. In addition to the anti-philosophical attitude taken up by the theologians on the account that philoso-phy is thought to lead to infidelity or to be itself infidelity, the theologians composed some refutations against the philosophers who set forth views which they consider to be in conflict with religion. Ibn Khaldun, however, displays a new and original attitude to philosophy. His attitude rests on a logical critique of the epistemological premises on which philosophers build their metaphysics. He shows a quite clearly positive inclination towards philosophy during his critique of philosophy. Ibn Khaldun not only avoids rejecting philosophy as a whole like a legalist, but also avoids taking a negative attitude towards the problems of philosophy with a philosophical and theological position; on the contrary, he aims at examining the epistemological principles of philosophy and producing a critical analysis of the nature of the basic premises of philosophical thought.

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