A Critical Look at Ghazali's Attitude towards Philosophy

As one of the seekers after truth, Ghazali's attention is directed to the group of philosophers more than any other groups. He believes that their way of discovering the truth is not efficient. He divides philosophers into materialists, naturalists and metaphysicians and proposes twenty issues in theology according to seventeen of which he considers philosophers as heretic and according to three of which as disbelievers.
This research which uses a descriptive-analytical method, deals with Ghazali’s motivations and stances towards philosophy and philosophers and the criticisms he directs to them. Investigating the views of Ghazali, the paper reaches the conclusion Ghazali's pretext for excommunicating the philosophers is not consistent with the religious and theological beliefs confirmed by him. Motivations have a great effect on Ghazali’s disagreement with philosophy which is not consistent with his reality-seeking.