Miskawayh’s Kitāb Ṭahārat al-Nafs as a Program Leading to Ethicisation of Knowledge

Miskawayh (d. 421/1030) called his monograph on ethics Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq wa-Taṭhīr al-Aʿrāq (“Refinement of Character and the Purification of Natural Dispositions”) (Miskawayh 1966; 2002). An alternative title is Kitāb Ṭahārat al-Nafs (“Book on the Purity of the Soul”). These titles are illuminating. We will try to show that his book is a kind of a program of self-education, a constant endeavour to improve self-discipline by learning and practicing virtues, which in Miskawayh’s Neoplatonic formulation, leads to “purification of the soul.”

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Published in: Key Classical Works on Islamic Ethics
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
See chapter on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004459472_008