Abstract
This article analyzes the chapter on ethics from Müneccimbaşı Ahmed Dede’s (d.1702) commentary Sharḥ al-Akhlāq
al-‘Aḍuḍ, written in the genre of practical philosophy consisting of ethics, household management, and politics.
Müneccimbaşı lived from the mid-17th to the beginning of the 18th century in the Ottoman period. Firstly, considering
the period in which Müneccimbaşı’s commentary was written, it can be seen as a renewal and adjustment of the old
tradition in terms of practical philosophy and ethics. However, in the context of philosophical ethics, the commentary
aimed to renew and revive the ancient philosophy not as a separation of methods but within the framework of
expanding the area of integrated methods. The second aim expressed the problematic of combining peripatetic
philosophy’s virtue theory with the method of purification and abstraction from physical, bodily pleasure and other
things through mujāhada [spiritual struggle] and riyāḍa [asceticism] in Sufi thought in order to see and know the
essence of the absolute lights, which is the purpose of Ishrāqī wisdom. Accordingly, virtue theory involves having
the temperaments and behaviors arising from the powers of desire and anger from the human soul become mediocre
and moderate in terms of quantity and quality through wisdom.
Keywords
Müneccimbaşı ethics virtue asceticism practical perfection divine lightShare
Details
- Authors: İlker Kömbe, Assist. Prof, İstanbul Medeniyet University
- DOI: dx.doi.org/10.12658/Nazariyat.7.1.M0118en
- Year: 2021 (May) / Volume: 7 / Issue: 1
- Page: 159-186
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