The virtue of wisdom in Ghazali's moral philosophy

Wisdom is one of the concepts emphasized in every period in the history of thought. In the history of Islamic thought, the concept of wisdom is a concept examined in the disciplines of kalam, tafsir, hadith and fiqh. In other words, wisdom is one of the basic virtues in moral philosophy. In the tradition of Islamic moral philosophy, the concept of wisdom has been considered and evaluated as one of the basic virtues by thinkers. Therefore, in our research, we first tried to reveal the definitions, content, parts of wisdom and the views of thinkers before and after Ghazali on wisdom. The main subject of our study is the virtue of wisdom in Ghazali's moral philosophy. In this context, the place and importance of the virtue of wisdom in Gazzali's thought system has been tried to be explained, and Gazzali's view of the virtue of wisdom has been examined by touching on the understandings put forward by thinkers about the virtue of wisdom in the historical process up to Ghazali. All of these were evaluated together and discussed comparatively before and after Ghazali, thus, the place, importance and scope of the virtue of wisdom in Ghazali's thought were revealed and the course of the virtue of wisdom as one of the basic virtues in the historical process was tried to be elucidated. The meaning that Ghazali attributes to the concept of wisdom in moral philosophy is an issue that needs to be evaluated in a historical context, taking into account the accumulation of knowledge. In this context, thinkers before Ghazali generally associated the virtue of wisdom directly with the balanced use of the mind and explained the virtue of wisdom by considering it on the basis of reason. In this sense, Ghazali added spiritual dimensions to this rational basis by adapting the tradition to his own system. Therefore, in Ghazali's moral philosophy, the virtue of wisdom is one of the dominant virtues and is very important in being moral. Although al-Ghazali prioritizes reason, the virtue of wisdom, which he explains by associating it with concepts such as logic, knowledge of Allah and contemplation, is a concept with a wide meaning that should be evaluated from a holistic perspective in his moral philosophy. As a result of this holistic perspective, he influenced later understandings of morality.