Freedom of Thought in al-Farabi and al-Ghazali's Prophetic Eye.

I intend to explore some of the fundamental differences between al-Ghazali and al-Farabi, whose profound relation marked the beginning of the first systematic struggle between Greek philosophy and monotheistic revelation in Islam. As this conflict is complicated and vast, I will limit my approach to it by beginning with al-Farabi's understanding of the relationship between theology and political science, and ending with al-Ghazali's treatment of mysticism in relation to the philosophic way of life as implied in al-Farabi. Al-Farabi's conception of the relationship between political science and theology and al-Ghazali's mystical response will reveal that one of the fundamental conflicts between reason and revelation is over the nature of divine causality, called by the Greek philosophers "emanation", and its theological and educational implications. For the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides, as for many Christian and Islamic theologians, the philosophic man and the man of faith could be distinguished according to how they understood divine causality. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]