The Rationality of Mu’tazilah and the Enlightenment Reason: A Comparison Based on the Relationship between Reason and Morality

Abstract

Theories of reason (aql) have an impact on the act of thinking, all the activities that are carried out on this axis and, accordingly all the acts that are performed subsequently. Individuals or societies often plan and perform the acts that they think about, knowingly or unknowingly, within the framework of the prevailing theory of reason and movement of thought. Therefore, the meanings and concepts attributed to reason or separated from reason and the nature of reasoning are as important as the nature, position and functions of the reason for humanity. In this context, one of the issues that is worth examining in many ways is the relationship between reason and morality. First, it should be stated that unlike its counterparts, in this article, it is aimed to make a comparison between Mu’tazilah rationality and the Enlightenment reasoning on the basis of reason-morality relation. At this level, in this study, evaluations were made about the effects and results of the theories of reason and the thoughts on the reason-morality relationship on the evolution of humanity. In the research, the promising or destructive effects of alternative intellectual structures, theories of reason and approaches to the reason-moral relation on behalf of the human species and other living things were emphasized. The mentioned points reveal some of the original and contributing aspects of this study, as well as similar ones. It is obvious that there are difficulties arising from very different meanings and interpretations attributed to the concepts of reason and morality in terms of religious traditions, philosophical traditions and philology. Aiming for comparative study also means undertaking additional difficulties in terms of investigating the issue. However, the importance of the position that the theories of reason and the reason-moral relation perspective possess through their connections with the groups, social life, states and international relations, and moreover, with the metaphysical realm, make such comparisons useful and inevitable. Considering all these issues, two basic thought formations have been selected in this study, one to represent Islamic thought in specific to ecoles of kalam, the other to represent Western philosophy. Moreover, the ideas that have been put forward by these thought traditions about the relationship between reason and morality on the axis of the theories of reason they produce, and their consequences have been examined in outline. The first of these is the Mu’tazilah thought, also known as the “rationalists of Islam”, and the other is the Enlightenment philosophy, which symbolizes the Enlightenment thought called the “age of reason”. Different factors played a role in the preference of Mu’tazilah and the Enlightenment philosophy as the determined period and school. What stands out from these factors in the first plan is that both thought practices meet in the denominator of “rationality”, even though they are very different from each other in terms of content, meaning, nature, and philosophy. Although this is not the main purpose, one of the results that these schools understanding is in a deep divergence in terms of the basic paradigm. Comparisons have been made between the two movements of thought in terms of the objective or instrumental dimension of the theories of reason, the presence/absence of a connection between reason and the metaphysical realm, whether reason can be independent of morality, and the experiences that the ideas and claims put forward in these fields ultimately provide to humanity. On the other hand, it was emphasized that today’s people have still personally experienced the effects of the Enlightenment but they stayed away from applying the positive or negative consequences of the reason-morality relation idealized by Mu’tazilah in the context of the theory of reason proposed by Mu’tazilah. In this context, this study makes an effort to find answers to the following questions: “If it were possible to apply the views on the mind-moral relationship proposed by the Mu’tazilah or the world of thought he represents, would it have made possible a founding and transforming position on the current conjuncture, or what kind of results would this have?” Finally, the potentials of the realization of the things that were promised by Mu’tazilah and the philosophy of Enlightenment within the framework of mind-moral relationship and the results that emerged in real life were discussed. The mentioned movements of thought are compared over the current situation of the world, nature, human structure, and common and basic values that are valuable for humanity. In addition, to what extent justice could be established in terms of these traditions and, as a result, the possibility of realizing of virtue, pleasure, and happiness are discussed.