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- Title
Saʿadya Ga ʾon and Yaʿqūb al-Qirqisānī on the Logical Structure of the Rational and Traditional Laws: Logic and Kalām in the Karaite-Rabbanite Controversy.
- Authors
Ravitsky, Aviram
- Abstract
One of the central topics on which the Karaites and the Rabbanites disagreed is the legitimacy of applying analogy (qiyās) in legal issues. Yaʿqūb al-Qirqisānī and Saʿadya Ga ʾon, two of the great scholars who participated in this debate dealt with it at length. This article analyses the application of Aristotelian logic to this Karaite-Rabbanite debate. According to the Karaite, Qirqisānī, in legal matters the cause (ʿillah) is similar to the Middle Term in Aristotelian syllogism. Qirqisānī alleged that Saʿadya Ga ʾon accepted the application of analogy to the rational commandments (ʿaqliyyāt) but not to the divine commandments (samʿiyyāt) and accuses him of inconsistency. Several modern researchers have followed Qirqisānī in his analysis of Saʿadya’s view but failed to explain the reason for his distinction between the rational and the divine precepts in this context. This paper analyses Saʿadya’s position, based on the quotations of Saʿadya in Qirqisānī's Kitāb al-Anwār wa-al-Marāqib and on the various writings of Saʿadya. The legal structure of a rational precept, in Saʿadya’s position, is similar to that of a general proposition, in which the subject and the predicate are connected by a Middle Term, whereas the logical structure of a divine precept is similar to that of an individual proposition , from which no analogy can be drawn. The use of logic in the debate between Qirqisānī and Saʿadya can be seen as application of Kalām, the support of a religious position by rational and convincing arguments.
- Publication
Tarbiz / Trbyṡ, 2015, Vol 84, Issue 1/2, pvii
- ISSN
0334-3650
- Publication type
Article