Mu'tezile perception in last period Ottoman thought

In the last periods of the Ottoman Empire, various religious-philosophical movements emerged in parallel with the technical and scientific developments in Europe. The inability to produce answers to the aforementioned denialist movements with the traditional point of view of theological thought has brought up the need for a great questioning and confrontation. Despite the defensive identity of the science of Kalam, the inadequacy of the available resources and the need to bring a rational point of view to the fore revealed the necessity of building a new path. Finally, this quest was embodied in the "New Science of the Word" movement. It is possible to talk about many similarities between the "innovation movement" and "Mu'tazila" in terms of the priority of the mind and the methods used. As a matter of fact, late Ottoman authors have adopted a more moderate attitude against the Mu'tazila, instead of the heavy criticism and accusations we see in classical works. In this context, the ideas of the Mu'tazila sect prioritizing reason and free will were used as a response to the antiIslamic criticisms of modern denialist movements. The discourses of orientalist researchers encouraging Mu'tazilite thought were also among the driving elements of these efforts. On the other hand, the "relatively" negative image of Mu'tazila in the eyes of the society has led some of our scholars to use the guise of "Maturidi" in problem areas such as freedom and responsibility. Keywords Kalam, Mu'tazila, Improvement, Ottoman, New Science of Kelâm